From informality to urban formality in GAM social interest condominiums: adaptations, challenges and lessons for housing policy

Abstract

In the Greater Metropolitan Area (GAM) of Costa Rica, the production of social interest condominiums financed by the state housing subsidy system has become the alternative housing solution, from public policy, for people in conditions of poverty. The development of these figures —legal and spatial— has implied a real change of life for those who have historically had to face urban informality and survive in precarious settlements. This change begins with a process of breaking the previous way of living, to incorporate and then “adapt” to another way, thought from formality, which is not always appropriate for the residents; that is, it does represent lives as a virtuous change, at least in some respects. This gives rise to the emergence of different types of conflicts, adjustments and/or consensus building by residents in the new environment, which can even lead to processes of return to informality in an environment of formal origin. The study of these experiences generates learning for housing policy. The work identifies those aspects proposed by the formality in the condominiums that have generated neighborhood conflicts, discusses these learnings, and analyzes how they could be rescued as lessons.