Public Intervention, Housing and Land Use in Latin American Cities

Abstract

This short paper is intended to describe a recent research project undertaken in Latin America. It began in April 1978 and was financed until September 1980 by a generous grant from the Overseas Development Administration ESCOR Committee. The general objective of the research is to improve understanding of the role and position of the poor within urban society in Latin America. More specifically, the aim is to understand how the needs of the urban poor with respect to housing and servicing are articulated and satisfied. The study has examined the aims, development and implementation of government policies towards lowincome housing dwellers, has tried to relate those policies to the wider interests of the state and the constraints within which it acts, and to evaluate governmental success in meeting the needs of the poor. We have examined the needs of the poor, their understanding of the main constraints on barrio servicing and improvement, their involvement in community organizations and the role that the community and its leaders play in influencing state action. Since housing and servicing directly impinge on the interests of politicians, bureaucrats, landowners, real estate developers as well as those of the poor, they represent critical elements in the relationship between the poor and the wider urban society. Essentially, therefore, the research is interested in how resources are allocated within urban society and how political and administrative power operates at the municipal level. The research is being conducted in several cities as a reaction to the dominant trend in urban studies in Latin America to concentrate on a single centre. Our aim has been to make generalizations across cities about the nature of urban development, policy and politics. While the analysis has been confined to countries with nonmilitary governments, Colombia, Mexico and Venezuela, there are sufficient differences between the countries and the chosen cities to compare the nature of poverty and urban growth. It aims to construct a series of statements about urban development since 1965, specifically about the prospect for self-help housing development. The three cities selected were Bogota, the capital of Colombia; Valencia, a middle-sized Venezuelan city; and Mexico City.