This is a CTP of initiative: ICA/COVILPI (Argentina)
In 1997, the Municipal Housing Commission of the City of Buenos Aires issued resolution 525 which contemplated the granting of loans - with a mortgage guarantee in favor of said Commission - to finance the purchase, building, extension or refurbishment of housing In benefit of families of limited resources and in a situation of emergency housing.
By 1996-1997, the housing situation in La Boca neighborhood had been complicated by the general socioeconomic situation of the city and the country. The failure of the recovery policies of the neighborhood of La Boca, coupled with economic opening and the arrival of foreign capital in a real estate market depressed prices, began to press again on the most vulnerable families. As the evictions spread, a part of the affected population and related organizations were merged into the Permanent Assembly of evicted Persons of La Boca, which, through mobilization and articulation with various actors, managed to decree the housing emergency of the neighborhood and The implementation of a special operation for the purchase of the tenants by means of individual or joint loans.
Operative 525/97 represented a political and social "conquest" of this new organizational expression. The organizational balance was positive, in the sense of allowing the crystallization of a plural space where different sectors converged. With respect to the proposed housing solution, Operative 525/97 limited itself to transferring the domain, without implementing mechanisms of subdivision of the property nor resources for the rehabilitation of the properties, that were very deteriorated, reason why only a brake To eviction actions, without advancing in the definitive solution of the housing deficit.
The implementation of operative 525 was the first significant achievement achieved by members of COVILPI. The organization had emerged within the framework of the housing problems experienced in the south of the city of Buenos Aires in general and the neighborhood of La Boca, in particular. The resolution of the municipal housing commission meant a recognition of the problem by the city government.
La Boca neighborhood, like the entire south of the city of Buenos Aires, was historically one of the least developed and marginalized areas of the city. This situation has historical roots that go back to the end of the 19th century, but worsened during the military dictatorship that ruled Argentina between 1976 and 1983. With the return of democracy, different projects were promoted to recover the area with a strong public investment and Contributions of private capital.
However, the economic crisis of the late 1980s affected the progress of this policy and the projects were virtually paralyzed. With the change of government in the city, in 1992, the rehabilitation project of the neighborhood of La Boca entered an impasse. During the decade of 1990, and under a policy of economic openness, the renovation of the neighborhood was at the mercy of new public projects and private enterprises that included the eviction of houses for rent and “conventillos”.
In this context, the operative 525 was an emergent of the growing housing crisis. The concrete risk of the evictions generated an important organizational dynamics of the neighbors. Both the operation initiated with the "RECUP-Boca" project and the credit operations with mortgage guarantee applied since 1996 involved in its implementation to neighborhood organizations. In that adverse context, the population affected by the evictions began to mobilize and organize themselves with the purpose of resisting their expulsion and reaffirming their right to reside and remain in the neighborhood, joining the Assembly of evicted Persons of La Boca. Through various actions - traffic breaks on the Nicolás Avellaneda Bridge, religious celebrations - undertaken with the support and participation of other neighborhood associations, such as the community kitchen "Los Pibes" and local representatives of the catholic Church, as well as the pressure Exercised against sectors of legislative power, the population managed to make the City Council declare La Boca neighborhood in a state of "Housing Emergency" and allocate a special budget fund for families at risk of eviction. This process of "sensitization and negotiation"
During the second half of the 1990s, the local political dynamics was marked by the process of autonomization of the city, the election of the first head of government and the drafting of the City Constitution. In socio-economic terms, the worsening situation further narrowed the state's margins of intervention.
Shortly after the democratic recovery in 1983, the housing issue in La Boca neighborhood was socially problematized, motivating the formulation of La Boca Urban Recovery and Development Program (RECUP-Boca.) It was an ambitious program that sought to promote The integral development of the neighborhood, both at the urban and social levels, and incorporated the participatory dimension as a fundamental component of design).
The RECUP-Boca recognized two key lines of action. On the one hand, the immediate actions, aimed at alleviating situations of housing emergency, to guarantee minimum conditions of habitability in real estate, while the definitive works were carried out. On the other hand, actions aimed at the general rehabilitation of the neighborhood, through the incorporation, rehabilitation and progressive transfer of real estate to the beneficiary families, allowing in turn to restart the investment cycle with loan recoveries. A key element of the rehabilitation component was the existence of an important reserve of fiscal lands in the property known as "Casa Amarilla". The RECUP-Boca proposed to use this reserve as a land bank to relocate the families of houses for rent or "Conventillos" that were considered unrecoverable or were in a situation of critical overcrowding, while progress was made in the rehabilitation of properties that would be considered recoverable .
The implementation of RECUP Boca was quickly hampered by the economic and political conditions of the city in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Its action was limited to the purchase in 1989-90, via judicial auction, of 21 "conventillos" and to the management of the rehabilitation works of four of them. The change of City major in 1992 dealt the final blow to RECUP-Boca, which, however, continued to exist formally for several years.
This program, which "put the municipal logic in tension" by its new formulation in terms of rehabilitation, did not succeed in disarticulating the "prevailing order": the laissez faire of the State before the "specific evictions" of the low-income population And his expulsion from the central city. Between 1992 and 1996 the program was virtually paralyzed. In that year the "Conventillo" Renewal Program was implemented, which was limited to a replanning of the RECUP-Boca works.
Operative 525 did not contemplate the possibility of access through organizations, such as cooperatives, mutuals or civil associations. Operative 525 responded to the objective of brake the evictions of the affected buildings and to alleviate the housing crisis, without foreseeing a satisfactory answer to the problem of housing degradation. It was a short-term intervention and did not have the capacity to foresee the complications derived from the joint purchase. Neither incorporated the organizational dimension of the beneficiary families nor the possibility of supporting self-building processes for the rehabilitation, but not partial, of real estate. At present, there is no regulation that permits a sustainable intervention in these properties, although it is contemplating an extension of the credit that allows its refection and division into horizontal property.
The crisis of the evictions that was unleashed from 1996, was something unexpected for the majority of the neighbors of La Boca. Until that time, many of them had received some type of state assistance through different programs that had been implemented in the neighborhood. The quick reaction and the great capacity of organization that they managed to face this situation can be explained by the participation of organizations like the MOI that already had experience in facing threats of evictions.
COVILPI members who participated in the protests against the evictions in La Boca expected their actions to generate a concrete response from the national state or the city government. What they did not anticipate was the type of response they received.
For the residents of La Boca who would later form COVILPI, the experience of the protests of 1996 and 1997 was a novelty. Their active participation in these actions of protest represented a great learning generated from the relationships that established with other organizations. Probably, the main learning generated during this CTP was related to the generation of capacities to influence politically.
On the other hand, the association with other organizations with more trajectory in the field of the popular habitat allowed the founders of COVILPI to internalize and to be formed in subjects of self-management housing.
Stay informed. Subscribe for project updates by e-mail.
