Mobility Programs and expectations of recipients. Qualitative evidence from a mobility program in Santiago, Chile

• In Event: Sustainable Urban Policy Challenges in Latin America: A 10 Year Time Horizon

Abstract

This paper explores a rarely studied intra-urban spatial policy issue, namely neighborhood changes brought about by programs that promote outward mobility and residential re-accommodations. It analyzes the perceptions of residents (stayers) and movers of a neighborhood with high turnover due to the implementation of a mobility program, and seeks to understand their decision-making processes, and how the moves might help explain local change or stability of the neighborhoods affected. It reports on interviews with key actors from one of the areas where the mobility program was implemented (public housing projects with severe structural and overcrowding problems). Two sets of interviewees were surveyed: 1) neighbors that have stayed in the area; and 2) movers that have already been through the search and/or moving process. While most residents were fond of their neighborhood, many dislike the actual housing in which they live, and most movers wished to live close by, and to move to a house with a patio and more space (cf. the apartment in which they lived previously). Results show that those who moved in the early stages of the program were able to match both goals: a house close to their old neighborhood; while later movers were obliged to move further away from the original neighborhood mostly due to rising prices in the area (an unintended consequence of the program). Stayers perceive the policy change as increasing insecurity, at least in the short term until all movers leave, and until new solutions are implemented on their behalf.

Author

• Francisca Bogolasky, University of Texas at Austin