Venezuelan Vice President Nicolas Maduro pledged Thursday to continue a housing program, refuting accusations that construction has halted.

"Venezuela's housing project did not and will not stop," Maduro said in response to media coverage of protests by workers claiming that construction has come to a standstill.

The vice president made the remarks as Venezuela, faced with housing shortage, completes the building of 60 new apartments in the capital city of Caracas and 3,000 in the states of Apure, Bolivar and Zulia.

The government launched the housing program in 2011, hoping to build 380,000 more homes in 2013 to add to the 346,000 built from 2011 to 2012, Maduro said.

According to official figures, more than 28,000 families, becoming homeless after heavy rains in 2010, stay now in temporary shelters across the country. Some 11,000 of the families are expected to move into new homes this year.