Impacts of Social Housing on Urban Transformations of Informal Settlements in Bogotá, Colombia

Abstract

Social housing projects trigger significant urban transformations in adjacent urban areas. Global South countries invest considerable resources in new social housing to reduce quantitative housing deficits, but their effects on urban transformations in neighboring areas are often overlooked. Although informal settlements are widespread in Global South cities, few studies focus on their transformations due to new social housing projects. To address this literature gap, we employed a quasiexperimental method in which we compared urban changes in Bogotá’s informal settlements near social housing projects (experimental group) against those outlying new projects (control group). Through georeferencing, satellite imagery, and field visits, we could determine and compare transformations outside and inside informal settlements in the last decade regarding land values, new structures, housing extensions, basic infrastructure, and public space improvements. We observed that informal neighborhoods near social housing experienced larger land value increases, a higher number of new building permits, and basic infrastructure improvements. We concluded that social housing clusters near informal settlements in Bogotá may explain land value increases that encouraged further private and public investment around these areas. Clusters also attract new social housing that reaches informal settlements and produces a phenomenon of informalization of formality.