Renting and Sharing in Low-Income Informal Settlements

Lacunae in Research and Policy Challenges

Bibliographic Data

ID5788909
AuthorsAabiya N Baqai (The University of Texas at Austin), P M Ward (0000-0002-9755-627X, The University of Texas at Austin)
Year2020
Volume08
Issue03
Pages456-483
Publication date2020-01-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueCurrent Urban Studies (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 2328-4900 • E-ISSN: 2328-4919
PublisherScientific Research Publishing (PUBLISHER • CN)
DOI10.4236/cus.2020.83026
OpenAlexW3087770147
LanguageEN
Citations received10
References cited29

This paper describes the nature of low-income housing markets for renting and sharing in Latin America and the Caribbean. It reviews the importance of non-owner housing markets associated with early urbanization from the late nineteenth century to the mid-1940s when rental tenements of different types-often slums-predominated as migrant and worker housing. The rapid rise of informal settlements and self-building from the 1950s onwards inverted the tenurial status of low-income housing markets: "ownership" eclipsed renting, and whether informal or formal, became the primary mode of state supported housing production. However, as informal access to land slowed in the 1980s and 1990s, so renting and sharing began to emerge as subsidiary and increasingly important housing market alternatives, such that many cities are now showing a relative and significant decline in home ownership levels. Much of this rise in renting and sharing has occurred as a result of densification in the older, now consolidated, barrios that formed in the 1970s-90s. Despite this turnaround in low-income housing production and opportunities, public policy for non-ownership remains almost non-existent. Drawing upon detailed case studies, this article reviews the contemporary nature and dynamics of rental and shared housing across the region, and offers a series of policy approaches and instruments to promote both the supply and demand for non-ownership housing, primarily targeting the poor in the coming two decades

Rental housing · State ownership · Smart Parking Systems Research · Urban and Rural Development Challenges · Urban Planning and Governance

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