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  • Title: The housing, geography, and mobility of Latin American urban poor: the prevailing model and the case of Quito, Ecuador.
    Author: Klak T, Holtzclaw M.
    Journal: Growth Change; 1993; 24(2):247-76. PubMed ID: 12344752.
    Abstract:
    In this study of the constraints of low-income migrants in securing decent housing in Quito, Ecuador (a rapidly growing city), there is a literature review of Latin American intraurban mobility and housing, the development of a theoretical model, and a bivariate analysis. John Turner's model of the three stages in the life cycle of migrants and the three concentric zones of urbanization provides the initial framework for examining Quito migration. Quito differs from other Third World and Latin American cities in that its origins are pre-Colombian, and physical barriers surround the city. Data were obtained from housing data collected independently in 1990 and 1991 and survey data on households living in 1000 inadequate housing units in 1989. 35.5% of Quito's population live in inadequate housing (poor building materials, poor construction, deterioration, or lack of basic services). Three concentric and elongated zones are constructed based on distance from the center city and periphery and are representative of shelter types (rented rooms, shanty, house, and apartment). Shelter improves with type of ownership status. The attitudes of local officials influences the proportion of the poor living in rental or self-help housing. 36% of Quito's low-income residents live in rented rooms, and 38% live in shanties and houses. Bridgeheaders (new migrants who are usually young single males) tend to live in rented rooms for under five years and to move over time to shanties and then houses. Colonial preservation in central Quito and landlords' incentives for encouraging migrants to stay in rental housing interferes with the third phase of the model. Mixed housing throughout the city fits the third phase. Local laws prevent squatters and self-help housing. Rented rooms are primarily in the central city. Occupant income increases with shifts from rented rooms, to shanties, to houses. Shelter, geographic, and mobility patterns that do not fit the model are identified. Urban circumstance may not be linear and evolutionary as predicted, but the pattern is not diverse enough to warrant abandoning the model. The recommendation is for a flexible model for adapting a universal model to local and global conditions.
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