The Undeniable Urgency for Housing in Latin America

Prioritizing Quality and Quantity

The following article has been translated from Spanish from Arquine:  La vivienda en Latinoamérica. The sad reality of the underdeveloped countries throughout Latin America is much worse than most institutions, organizations, and agencies would like to admit. It would be to undertake an epidemic for which the cure requires more human and economic resources than we are currently capable. But as any other global crisis it starts with an activist approach to exposure and education - a so called cry for help, an informal call for entries to something bigger than us all. While I do firmly believe that good architecture can facilitate a lasting change in the world, it is only on component of something larger. But where else should we start if not with the basic necessity of a quality roof over one's head. 

For this reason, among many others, I have decided to focus my architectural and urban career toward the quality development of the entire American Continent, especially Latin America. 

Beginning of article:

According to the census of 19 countries, in the early nineties, the region had 93 million private homes. According to 2009 data from the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), 33% of American households are in poverty, 13% in extreme poverty and 37% of the houses are unsuitable for use. Of these, only 21% can be made habitable by certain renovations ^[1].

Whereas quantitative and qualitative aspects, the current deficit affects about 59 million people ^[2]. This figure increases by more than two million homes annually by way of formation of new households. The pace of construction required to prevent an increase in accumulated deficit exceeds the efforts so far made by the housing policies in the region. Of the 93 million homes in the region, 17 million (18%) are the quantitative deficit, and 21 million (22%) the qualitative deficit hovering a total of 38 million units.

To give an idea of ​​the magnitude of the problem, in 2007, "Industrialization American housing possible"^[3] pointed out that it would be necessary to build about 24 million homes per year to address this critical situation. Or capturing it in terms of investment that would be necessary speaks investments of around 180 billion dollars a year to fix the problem in ten years. This amount is 36 times the national budgets of the six Central American countries in 1995. The vast majority of countries cannot even build enough housing for households that are annually, so its shortcomings continue to increase from year to year. Moreover, the rate of obsolescence of the housing stock remains high because of inadequate maintenance programs and housing recovery, which in turn contributes to the worsening of the deficit by forcing consideration high replacement rates.

To better illustrate by way of example, has questioned Julian Salas preparing urban land would be sufficient to meet current needs on a global level. And the answer is to provide new developed as much land as existing today in Africa, Asia and Latin America.

It is important to understand that the profusion of statistics at the end you can also generate a degree of depersonalization problem with names and faces. Vital realities difficult to perceive from the comprehensive reports and databases of international organizations. Without neglecting this observation, we continue to share data that helps to form a general framework of a major challenge still facing societies in Latin American cities.

[1] Statistical Yearbook for Latin America and the Caribbean. ECLAC [Check made on January 24, 2013]

[2] A space for development: housing markets in Latin America and the Caribbean. Inter-American Development Bank. 2012

[3] Chambers, Julian (2000), "Industrialization American housing possible." P. 26

Source graphics IDB. 2012