INCREMENTAL CONSTRUCTION. A Strategy to Facilitate Access to Housing Proposals Based on an Enabling Approach to Housing Markets

By Margarita Greene, Eduardo Rojas (03/07, SDS/SOC, En, Es)

Documents INCREMENTAL CONSTRUCTION. A Strategy to Facilitate Access to Housing Proposals Based on an Enabling Approach to Housing Markets (DOC, 250 Kb, En)

DRAFT

Suitable shelter is a basic need; as such, universally, housing is considered a merit good. In spite of government efforts to provide quality housing to low-income households, conservative estimates indicate that in the year 2000, more than 17 million households in Latin America and the Caribbean were sharing homes, and 21 million lived in inadequate housing conditions. Currently, three million new houses are needed annually to provide proper shelter for newly formed households. These discouraging statistics are the result of several interrelated factors. One factor is the slow growth of Latin American economies, which have been unable to generate sufficient employment opportunities to increase the incomes earned by the population, a situation worsened by a drastically unequal income distribution.

Last updated: 06/08/07