Quality social housing in Colombia: towards an integral solution

Abstract

Social housing is one of the deepest felt needs in Colombia, for 2011 the number of families without quality housing reached 3.5 million. Even though the statistics reflect the severity of the problem, its real dimension is deeper and much more complex as it interconnects many actors with diverse motivations, who are in constant interaction. The policies that are being currently applied in the country are mostly linear and are not supported on the structure of the system. By simply granting more subsidies or imposing severe minimum laws, it will not be possible to regenerate the feedback structure and obtain real improvement. In this article we will study Colombia´s social housing from a systems perspective in order to propose structural policies that will modify the dominance of different potential feedback cycles to accomplish a real change in the quality of this type of housing. Some of the opportunities to empower the virtuous cycles are found in the community networks, the economies of scale and the quality of the housing as a way to impulse progress. The greatest dangers that should be treated are the high economic, social and security costs generated by informal housing and low quality formal housing, and the well intentioned control that limits innovation.