El problema de la habitación en los países capitalistas periféricos: sobre sus reales causas y posibles soluciones

Resumen

Mr. Nahoum discusses several common premises about housing and the poor in Latinamerica. There are: Í€œHousing problems pertains only the poor or marginal inhabitantsÍ€; Í€œin underdeveloped countries there are no enough resources to cope with housing problemsÍ€; Í€œthe increase of governmental expenditure benefits lower income groups since its nature is redistributiveÍ€; building standards have to be lowered in order to obtain cheaper solutions within reach to the poorÍ€; Í€œproblems of marginal sectors should not be reduced only to economic dimensions, they should also emphasize the need of social recognition, selfassurance, and respect for identity and free will within themselvesÍ€; Í€œpopulation participation in the project and design of housing solutions is an essential requisite in order to obtain adequate solutionsÍ€; Í€œpublic action has not been efficient in solving housing problems for the lower income groups, thus the cities had to be built by the urban poor with their own resourcesÍ€; Í€œprofessionals should emphasize in diminishing the cost of technical solutions based on local raw materials and such in order to enable the poor to reach their solutionsÍ€; Í€œself-help and selfbuilding reduce building costs by its contribution of labourÍ€; and Í€œthe solution lies in providing soft credits, with low interest rates and on a long term basisÍ€. Since the author does not agree totally with the implication of most of these premises, he tries to discuss alternative solutions within the role of the State.

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