Urban growth, housing and public policies in Jujuy's lowlands

Abstract

The article refers to the lack of housing and the different ways in which people have
addressed this problem; the existing technical proposals on the growth of two cities of the
lowlands of Jujuy are exposed. In this paper, we will focus on San Pedro, and we will refer
to some aspects of Libertador General San Mart´ın, in order to establish some comparisons.
Both cities are surrounded by land whose sole owners are the sugar mills. In this context,
families in need of housing, belonging in large part to the most precarious population,
have as their only way of solving housing problems, de facto occupation, on public and
/ or private lands. Any growth of the city can only be through negotiation between the
people who occupy the land, the mills and the provincial government. The work is part
of the research activities that we have been developing in the region for several years.
Methodologically, this work was carried out qualitatively, open and in-depth interviews
were applied to different officials, some of them in practice and others already retired from
public service. We also interview local leaders and neighbors of some neighborhoods and
settlements in both cities.