The Necessary and Urgent Need for Slum Rehabilitation in Latin America

Abstract

The accelerated degradation of the standard of living particularly as to housing and the habitat in general
in Latin America, is beyond any shadow of doubt one of the most lacerating problems that the American
continent suffers. The latest official statistics drawn up for the United Nations World Conference ont Cities,
Habitat II (1996), have shown up the importance of the problem in its quantitative aspects —more than 150
million people extremely ill-sheltered— as well as such a profound physical deterioration, as would call for
a budget outlay of more than 171,000 million $USA to allay. The author maintains that growing interest
towards a palliating the situation on the part of multilateral organisms and of some national governments
is to be felt, this though the putting into effect of programs and projects aimed at improvement in brink of
disaster districts. For their conceptual base such programmes share the new paradigms proper to nonconventional
housing policy, this being focussed straight on the fight against poverty. The projects, undertaken
with a multi-sectorial approach ambition the achieving of objectives such as: a bettering of public health, the
putting of limits on vulnerability, the promotion of the household economies, the improving of local security
and social promise amongst many others.