Public Programs to Improve Housing and Neighborhood: Proposal of a Method for its Analysis from Human Development and Capabilities Approach

Abstract

Adequate housing was recognized as part of the right to an adequate standard of living in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948). Since then, and because human rights are interdependent with each other, dozens of treaties, declarations, and international instruments have referred to housing. Mexico has implemented various assistance programs and policies through the Social Development Department (SEDESOL, its Spanish acronym), and the Agrarian, Territorial and Urban Development (SEDATU, its Spanish acronym), among others that involve credit institutions or social housing developers.

Considering as a case study a rural coastal desert town in northwestern Mexico, this paper proposes a methodological approach for the assessment of strategies implemented by public programs aimed at improving housing and the neighborhood. The purpose is to identify the relevance of the actions derived from these programs in relation to the impact they have on the expansion of capacities for human development and the welfare of people.

The exposed case is interesting in as much as there are evident situations of socio-spatial segregation favored by the dual destiny of people. On the one hand, settlement of fishermen, and on the other hand, of second residences for tourism. Paradoxically, care strategies have promoted the division of areas without any urban service and away from health facilities and basic education. It is worth mentioning that this improved housing seems not to respond adequately to the climatic conditions of the environment.