ASSESSING SOCIAL HOUSING EFFECTS ON INFORMAL SETTLEMENTS IN BOGOTÁ, COLOMBIA

SERGIO VIDELA MARTÍNEZ ; KATHERIN RAMÍREZ ; PABLO D. AVALOS

Lodz

Congreso; AESOP Annual Congress; 2023

AESOP

Housing informality is a worldwide phenomenon, which nowadays became a structural featureof housing systems, particularly in the Global South. Informality is often perceived as a lack ofaffordable and adequate shelter while the typical state response to this phenomenon is socialhousing or upgrading programs (Gurran, Maalsen and Shrestha, 2020). Despite the assumptionof positive effects of formal housing provision on informality, there is little research on assessingthese effects (García-Suaza et al., 2022). Literature on social housing mostly focuses on itsquantitative externalities on a citywide scale. Most of them concluded there is a positive impactof social housing projects due to the extension of new infrastructure and services (Schwartz et al.,2006). However, housing construction may increase land values and produce gentrificationprocesses (Alzúa et al., 2016).This leaves the assessment of urban effects of social housing projects in informal settlementsmostly unattended. To address this literature gap, our research studies the empirical effects ofsocial housing on informal settlements at a local scale using paradigmatic projects in Bogotá builtin the last 20 years. Bogotá offers a typical Latin American example of an incomplete housingwelfare system characterized by a predominant informal market while a marginal intervention ofthe state in housing provision, mostly through demand-led subsidies. This is the result of threedecades of state retreat in Bogotá as a housing provider and a marked preference towards a roleas a financer and enabler of housing due to neoliberal policies (Rolnik et al., 2014).Our research addresses the relation between social housing construction and informalsettlements in Bogotá. Through a spatial analysis of social housing projects, we aimed to unveiltheir impacts on physical and socioeconomic conditions of neighboring informal settlements inthe long term. For this purpose, we selected three paradigmatic housing projects built in the lasttwo decades in predominantly informal settlements and analyzed how physical andsocioeconomic conditions changed around a buffer area of each project in comparison to otherinformal neighborhoods distant to the project. In terms of physical conditions, we comparedcadastral databases regarding floor area, building heights and construction materials prior andafter the social housing projects. We contrasted this information with satellite images to witnessinfrastructure and service improvements in a 10-year time horizon. Furthermore, we assessedhow socioeconomic conditions changed through the comparison of census and cadastral dataavailable at the neighborhood level. We concluded there are significant improvements ofsocioeconomic conditions in informal settlements near social housing projects product of privateand public investments. In contrast, areas without such public investments remained physicallysimilar until further upgrading projects took place. This way we aimed to make a significantcontribution to the field of planning in the Global south to understand the potential impact ofsocial housing beyond the traditional role of a shelter to counteract housing deficit but as a toolto trigger the improvement of informal settlements