As in the rest of the formal city, in the
popular neighborhoods
access to
Rentals occupy a central place in the concern of families.
Even though the homes - mostly single-room and with shared bathrooms - have housing deficiencies, neighbors have serious difficulties in accessing them, because
supply is scarce and prices are out of control, increasing at the rate of inflation.
On the one hand,
construction is progressing steadily.
The houses take advantage of the available aerial meters and "grow" upwards;
a postcard that changes almost day by day for the thousands of users of the Illia Highway, for example, from where these changes can be perceived with the naked eye.
An ordinary morning in the neighborhood shows the intense movement of materials that enter through the main doors: on motorcycles, on motocargo, on bicycles and even on backhoes, whose shovels are used to transport cement, recently produced in small, informal mixing trucks.
And on the other hand, the hundreds of families who go out to explore the neighborhood
looking for a place to live.
Many of them approach the first real estate agency with premises on the street, where Jorge Ferrero (real estate broker for Cucicba, the Buenos Aires professional association) assists them: "Between Monday and Wednesday, 20 people came in to leave me their information so that I can help them with "the search for housing. We also have requests through Whatsapp and our social networks. One of the biggest obstacles is that in
many cases they do not accept families with children."
In popular neighborhoods, in general, what is rented as housing is
a room with a shared bathroom:
"As a reference price, they can have a value of between 40 thousand and 50 thousand pesos per month. And with its own bathroom, between $ 80,000 and $90,000," he estimated.
Construction, a phenomenon parallel to the rental crisis in Villa 31. Photo: Guillermo Rodríguez Adami
Maria Cristina Cravino is a doctor in anthropology and a researcher at Conicet and in dialogue with
Clarín
she contributed her perspective: "The tenancy process manifests itself the same as in the entire country, but with more pronounced conflict because in the popular neighborhoods the regulations of the market, then in a context of crisis,
the situation is even more complex.
Today in 31, as in other towns and settlements,
everything that is built is for rent.
Cravino has worked in informal neighborhoods since the mid-80s, especially in the Conurbano;
His first investigations in Villa 31 were in the 90s, with the arrival of the eradication policy of former mayor Jorge "Topadora" Dominguez.
He explains that there is great pressure on popular neighborhoods - Villa 31 also has a plus due to its strategic location -, which is why there is
little supply:
"During the 2001 crisis we carried out many interviews and surveys with middle/lower class families who They arrived in the neighborhood after
going around a thousand hotels, boarding houses, family houses, or friends' houses.
Because for those who "fall out" of formality, arriving in these neighborhoods provokes fear and shame. Let us keep in mind that today tenant households in the formal city
are many more than 20 years ago
," Cravino warned.
Construction, a phenomenon parallel to the rental crisis in Villa 31. Photo: Guillermo Rodríguez Adami
According to official data, tenancy in the City of Buenos Aires rose to 36.1% of households (51.2% are owners), surveyed during the latest Annual Household Survey of 2022 carried out by the General Directorate of Statistics and Buenos Aires censuses.
In 2013 the percentage was 32.1% (56.8% owners).
At the country level, and according to data from the national census carried out in 2022, renter households represent 21.6% (61.6% are owners).
More than 30 years ago, during the 1991 census, renter households represented 12.3% of the total households surveyed for the sample.
With families almost without opportunities to access mortgage credit and without public policies for access to housing sustained over time, the percentages of renter households speak for themselves.
Construction, a phenomenon parallel to the rental crisis in Villa 31. Photo: Guillermo Rodríguez Adami
On Facebook, neighbors have a direct communication channel to advertise properties, to search or simply to share their experiences.
The greatest anguish today is the limitations that families have when renting with minors.
Not to mention, with pets.
They state that
the increases are given compulsively
, without warning, without families being able to put together an alternative plan.
In the vicinity of what is known as the Bajo Autopista neighborhood, a neighbor chatted with
Clarín
and said that she was currently looking for a place to move: "I was paying 55,000 pesos for a room with a shared bathroom, I live alone and work as a domestic worker in Vicente López. They increased me in January to 80,000 and now they want to raise me to 150,000. I am earning 250,000 and luckily my employers now gave me one day off per week, to compensate a little for the overwhelming situation. They are middle class, they are not rich.
"I don't know what to do and the worst thing is that I asked the neighbors and many are worse."
Another woman joins in and contributed her testimony.
"I went to see a room with a private bathroom and they asked me for 160,000, for a single person, it is a little cave, with zero light," she lamented.
They both say that this is the reason why they see a lot of movement in the neighborhood: people who leave and arrive permanently.
Many families even
end up homeless.
"There is the fear that some owners have that families will settle and cannot be evicted. And the tenants who today have the possibility of having a roof over their heads are worried about permanent increases. The pressure on the neighborhood generates these conflicts that worry us,"
Pedro Meza, a resident of Güemes, one of the neighborhoods in the town,
tells
Clarín .
There is no one here who does not know him, because Meza arrived in the neighborhood in the 70s. He originally settled in what is now Barrio Saldías (further north, almost reaching Salguero Avenue) and when the military dictatorship tried to evict the families , they were moving towards Retiro.
Finally, fewer than 40 families resisted the eviction and again, with successive economic crises, the town was repopulated.
Pedro remembers that the area where he lives was practically an open field.
The City, for now, continues with pending works related to urbanization.
From the Barrio Padre Mugica Special Projects Unit they reported progress with neighborhood commitments to stop construction: "One of the interventions carried out within the urbanization process is "
housing improvement
." this benefit they sign a commitment to not continue building upwards. So far the commitment of 2,650 homes has been achieved," explained Guillermo Barberis, head of this Unit.
Currently, according to official numbers, there are
12,750 homes in the neighborhood,
which includes the 1,230 new ones (which were part of the relocation of the families that were located in the Bajo Autopista) and the 70 that are being built right now in the northern end of the neighborhood, on Ramón Castillo.
The topic of construction in this particular neighborhood was a focus of interest on other occasions.
For example, when in 2008 the Nation and City governments held each other responsible for the growth of the settlement.
Nation for being the owner of the land and City for not exercising control to
stop the works
.
Control was even implemented to prevent construction materials from entering.
The history of controls was repeated in 2016 and 2017, when the urbanization process began and an attempt was made to discourage illegal construction.
S.C.