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This week, we were surprised by what happened in Las Condes, after Joaquín Lavín announced the construction of social housing in the Rotonda Atenas. Among the arguments put forward by former residents to oppose the measure, even in the street, are the reduction in surplus value, increased congestion and, although it seems incredible, new neighbors are hanging clothes on the balconies.
Integration is not new in our urban program. For more than a decade, the Ministry of Housing and Urban Development has promoted "social integration projects," neighborhoods which in 2017 accounted for about 36% of the grants paid by MINVU and which allowed families of different socioeconomic levels to live in the same place.
The affliction, however, two problems. First, the mix is limited to middle and lower clbad families, although this may be the reason why they do not show clbad conflicts like that of the Athens roundabout. Secondly, these are neighborhoods located mostly in the urban periphery, in places where there are few facilities and amenities.
Lavín tried a more radical way of social mixing: to include middle-clbad and middle-clbad subsidized families living in middle and upper middle clbad families.
The social integration that he proposes has a component that, to our knowledge, lacks "social integration projects": aporophobia or rejection of the poor. The arguments of greater congestion and lower added value, reported by residents of the Athens roundabout, are probably more of a myth than reality.
It is not the same for new neighbors hung on balconies. What explains the rejection of the latter, is that the ancient inhabitants fear that the arrival of new neighbors will break the social image of the place where they live. But why is it important? It is possible that this is because they define their social identity in the neighborhood. For them to live in a neighborhood of upper or upper middle clbad, it is not the same as living in a mixed income. The first gives them a social status, while the second, quite the opposite.
The fear of the poor or inferior status is not only based on prejudice, but rather, it is supported in what the neighborhood represents in terms of social clbad for its residents. It is there that they build the boundaries of their community or clbad identity. And in this, the new generations could bring a change. Many young households, with the same level of income as some of the dissatisfied Athens roundabout, today install themselves in middle clbad condominiums built in the middle of old working-clbad neighborhoods.
The aporophobia of the Athens roundabout is, ultimately, a manifestation of clbadism, but that does not mean that said clbadism is neither generalized nor less, explicable or comprehensible. The proximity between houses and residential complexes of different levels of income is and has been usual in Santiago, as in the Latin American cities.
Socio-spatial segregation, contrary to this proximity, is a social problem caused by the functioning of deregulated land markets and not only, or perhaps mainly, by aporophobia, which fortunately only shows up in time. in time. Today, land markets exclude the possibility of building affordable housing in cities – and that is why Lavín's initiative is important.
However, aporophobia is, in addition to an ugly and sad spectacle, a real threat efforts, projects and policies to build more socially integrated cities have to face. The misalignment of "social integration projects" and of aporophobia are therefore two of the main obstacles to reducing segregation in our cities and building more socially inclusive neighborhoods and cities.
- This review is under the exclusive responsibility of the author and does not necessarily reflect the editorial line or position of El Mostrador .
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