We have a severe affordable housing shortage in the United States — an urgent need for millions of additional homes. But exacerbating that housing shortage is a housing mismatch.

In much of the US, existing residential neighborhoods — the places where people already like to live, near their jobs, friends, and family members, and that are already served by utilities, transit, and other infrastructure — are overwhelmingly, and often exclusively, composed of single-family homes. While a four-bedroom Colonial can make good sense for a high-income family of five, it shouldn’t be the only housing option available in a community, given the kaleidoscopic variety of humanity and its households, from aging seniors to young adults to single parents.

“We’re going to have more people over the age of 65 than under 18 in the next decade,” says Rodney Harrell, AARP’s vice president of family, home, and community. The organization has a long history of advocating for better housing conditions and options for seniors. “People want to be near grocery stores, parks, libraries, transportation options — things that make them feel connected. But one of the challenges is that people want to stay in their existing neighborhoods, and there aren’t enough options there.”

Adding new housing options to existing communities, however, routinely elicits complaints about changes to the “neighborhood character.” This loaded phrase can contain exclusionary attitudes and bad-faith arguments within its ample ambiguity, but it can also be a response to dubious development decisions. A homeowner in a neighborhood of century-old Craftsman bungalows may understandably be put off by the idea of a sleek new seven-story steel and concrete building on the corner.

Therein lies the appeal of the humble accessory dwelling unit, or ADU — more colloquially known as an in-law apartment, carriage house, secondary suite, or casita, among other aliases. By converting a garage, attic, or basement to a separate apartment, or adding a small, detached cottage to a backyard, homeowners can create an extra space for family members or a small rental property that helps generate income. At the same time, they help increase the supply of affordable and accessible housing options in their neighborhood — without a dramatic impact to the local aesthetic. And making it easier for homeowners to do that can help communities everywhere address the local and national housing crunch.

Over the past decade, many cities and some states have relaxed decades-old restrictions on ADUs. California, for example, legalized ADUs on all single-family lots in 2017; a few years later, the nearly 27,000 ADUs permitted statewide in 2023 represented a 20-fold increase over 2016, and comprised more than 20 percent of all new housing permitted. In 2024, Los Angeles alone granted permits for more than 6,000 ADUs.

That’s not enough to singlehandedly solve California’s housing crisis — no one step is. But it’s certainly one piece of the puzzle, and a solution that many communities can get behind.

Still, making it legal to build an ADU at all is just the first hurdle. Making it easier for someone to accomplish is the next step — one that cities can assist in by removing unnecessary barriers.

For example, to encourage and accelerate the adoption of ADUs, many cities across the US and Canada have begun offering residents access to preapproved design plans for detached ADUs — complete technical schematics that have already been reviewed by building officials.

“The system can be a little bit stacked against the local homeowner who wants to be able to do this,” Harrell says. Between site reviews, utility plans, and architectural approvals, “there are so many things that you have to go through that you’re doing for the first time,” he adds. “Having these preapproved designs takes away one of those barriers. It says, ‘You don’t have to be a designer, or have enough money to hire one. Here are some designs that can work.’”

Preapproved ADU Plans in California

Los Angeles offers residents a growing catalog of preapproved ADU plans, including a standard one-bedroom architectural plan commissioned by the city, called the YOU-ADU (pictured), that any resident of Los Angeles can use for free.

Dozens of other plans are also preapproved, but require a modest licensing fee paid to their respective architects, most of whom can also be hired for site-specific consultations.

While a preapproved ADU plan already meets certain city codes (e.g. building, fire, and energy regulations), and thus can advance through the plan-check and permitting process more quickly than a custom design, it doesn’t mean a homeowner can just plop one in their backyard with no questions asked. There are still site-specific approvals required, such as land use or stormwater reviews.

But using a preapproved plan can shave weeks or even months off the process, and offers predictability for both homeowners and local officials. The efficiency of a standard design can also create cost savings.

“Custom plans not only take more time and money to design, they’re much more complex to deliver in the field,” says Whitney Hill, co-founder and chief executive of SnapADU in Southern California, whose standard design plans have been selected for preapproval in multiple cities around San Diego.

All of that drives up prices, she adds, noting that a fully custom ADU typically costs $30,000 to $50,000 more to build than a standard one of the same size and bed-and-bath count. “On the other hand, plans that we have built before have already been vetted for real-world constraints; we know we can build them efficiently.”

Hill says that faster permitting times on standard designs can also translate to lower costs. “Building an ADU in 12 months versus 18 months is far more economical from an overhead cost perspective for us,” she says. “We share that savings with the homeowner.”

Even when using a preapproved plan, homeowners should still be prepared for site-specific costs and work, she notes. “It’s critical to understand your site’s topography, existing utility locations, and existing utility loads,” she says. Some projects may require water service upgrades to accommodate an additional bathroom, for example, or an upgraded electrical panel—both of which can be costly.

But one of the biggest benefits to using a standard design, Hill says, is the predictability. “Build costs for an existing floor plan are available before you even kick off your own project,” Hill says, “[which] is great for homeowners who are trying to stick to a specific budget.”

Seattle’s ADUniverse

While Washington State recently passed legislation requiring cities to allow four homes on all residential lots (and six units near transit), Seattle began embracing ADUs over a decade ago, loosening some local restrictions that stood in the way of their adoption, such as minimum lot sizes. “That was an important first step, and a viable one, because land use regulations are what the city most directly controls,” says Nicolas Welch, senior planner in Seattle’s Office of Planning and Community Development.

Still, most homeowners have little if any experience with housing development, so the idea of hiring an architect and applying for permits to build a backyard cottage can feel overwhelming — even before the considerable cost involved. Seattle soon decided it should do more than simply improve its regulations, and developed a resource-rich website called ADUniverse.

“The site was meant to provide all the resources that a homeowner might need in one place with better, clearer information for folks who are basically trying to take on development for the first time without a background in it,” Welch says. “Offering some preapproved designs was one component of that, as well as letting them look up their property to see what’s actually feasible on their lot.”

The city invited architects to submit their ADU designs and then had a jury select 10 plans — out of about 150 submissions — to get preapproved by the building department. In the five years since, Welch says, “Some 350 permits have been issued for the preapproved designs,” or roughly 10 percent of all ADUs approved in that time; the city now permits an average of about 900 new ADUs per year.

“On the one hand, it’s a very small number in a city and county that has a shortage of hundreds of thousands of units, so I do think it’s important to right-size the expectations,” Welch says. “It’s very small and incremental. But it’s also hundreds of units that now exist, and that people are living in.”

Using a preapproved plan noticeably speeds up the early permitting process, Welch says: “If you don’t have something weird going on, like you’re on a very steep slope or you’re removing a gigantic tree or something, then you’ll get your permit in two to six weeks, rather than three or four months.”

While celebrating Washington’s statewide dissolution of single-family exclusive zoning, Seattle’s Director of Planning and Community Development, Rico Quirindongo, acknowledges that such a sea change in policy can also hasten gentrification pressure by opening up a new market.

“The challenge of gentrification in cities — and Seattle is no exception — is that an upzone happens, property values go up, property taxes go up, and then low- and middle-income families do not see the benefit of the upzone, they only feel the burden,” Quirindongo explains. “An opportunistic developer says, ‘I can buy you out for 10 percent over asking, and then you don’t have to worry about this anymore, you can go live somewhere else.’ That is how we have seen the Central District, a traditionally African American community here in Seattle, go from 75 percent Black families to 10 percent Black families over the last 20 to 25 years,” he says.

Easing the process, and cost, of building an ADU provides an “opportunity for homeowners to be a part of the development opportunity, where they’re building generational wealth,” he says. Whether a homeowner uses an ADU to generate long-term rental income or to house an aging relative or grown children, it can help them stay in their neighborhood and share in the benefits of local growth. “They are building a multi-generational campus that is their house and property. And you’re creating infill, missing middle housing, that is consistent with the context and feel of historic neighborhoods.”

Still, even if future rental income from an ADU might offset the cost of a construction or home equity loan, building one typically requires significant upfront investment. So Quirindongo helped devise a unique pilot program intended to open up the opportunity to more lower-income residents. Here’s how it works:

1. Selected homeowners (the pilot will begin with 10 parcels) will enter a partnership with the city and a developer, who will take out a 12-year ground lease on a portion of the homeowner’s lot.
2. In the first two years, the developer builds two detached ADUs in the homeowner’s backyard, at no cost to the homeowner.
3. The developer then rents out and manages both ADUs for 10 years. The developer keeps about half of the rental income, while the other half is split: a portion provides monthly revenue to the homeowner, while the rest is deposited in a set-aside account.
4. At the end of 10 years, the ground lease expires, and there’s enough money in that account to buy out the developer’s remaining interest and make them whole, so the homeowner ends up with two ADUs on their property, which they can continue to rent out or convey with the property should they sell their home. “Over that period of time, the homeowner builds up enough money in that account to buy out the partner, so they own those units outright after that 12-year period,” Quirindongo explains.

Preapproved ADU Plans in Oregon

Beyond creating unobtrusive infill housing, ADUs are, almost by definition, small — and thus inherently more affordable than most new single-family homes, which averaged 2,405 square feet in the third quarter of 2025.
In Oregon, Portland’s Residential Infill Project has yielded more than 1,400 new permits for ADUs and missing middle housing in single-family neighborhoods, comprising almost half of new development in the city from 2022-2024, even as other construction lagged. But as importantly, the project capped building sizes in an effort to encourage more small homes instead of fewer large houses — and that has demonstrably improved affordability. In 2023 and 2024, sale prices of new missing middle homes averaged $250,000 to $300,00 less than new single-family houses in the same Portland neighborhoods, largely due to their smaller sizes.

In a heartening example of municipal collaboration, Portland was able to borrow and tweak a preapproved plan from the city of Eugene, Oregon—the Joel, shown here—to offer its own residents a set of similar preapproved ADU plans.

Preapproved ADUs in Louisville, Kentucky

AARP published its first model ADU ordinance over two decades ago. Since then, the organization has helped a number of cities, including Louisville, Kentucky, to re-legalize ADUs by right locally, and helped communities hold contests to create free architectural plans for residents.

Louisville invited architects to submit their designs, and then purchased the rights to three preapproved ADU plans, which it offers for free to all residents.

Rodney Harrell, of AARP, says ADUs can enhance freedom for seniors by giving them more and better options in the places they already live. “What I love is that it’s a solution that gives more options to people who want to be in the communities that work best for them,” he says.

“I’ve talked to so many people who are stuck,” Harrell says. “They’ve got a house, and at some point it may have been their dream home, but now it’s become a nightmare. They’ve got too many stairs. Maybe it’s too big and their spouse passed, and they can’t afford it anymore.”

A senior who can no longer manage the stairs in their house can stay in the community they love by building a fully accessible, universally designed ADU in their backyard, he explains, and renting out the main house. “That gives you more freedom,” he says. “If you want to stay in your main house and have a caregiver stay in the ADU, that also gives you more freedom. Or maybe you just need a little bit of money to be able to afford to stay in your house, and maybe you’re able to rent out the ADU and stay in your main house.”

And Beyond

In Seattle, Welch says the city’s efforts to legalize ADUs in single-family neighborhoods helped pave the way for more middle housing (duplexes, triplexes, and fourplexes). “The sky didn’t fall, and so then state legislators felt more emboldened and empowered,” he says.

Many other cities and states across the US and Canada are now embracing ADUs as well, and providing design plans, guidance, and “ADU lookbooks” for residents interested in building one. Here’s a look at just a few preapproved designs offered in cities around North America.

There are dozens more examples across the country, and many cities continue to add new designs to their lists of approved plans. It’s merely one step in the right direction—but it’s a step nonetheless.

“People can be scared of things that are different,” AARP’s Harrell says. “But one thing that always gets me is that the ADU is really an old form of housing in a lot of the country. It’s just that we’re re-legalizing it. We’re making it able to be built again, and up to standards and codes of the modern day. So we shouldn’t put unnecessary barriers in place.”

In August 1985, residents of Jaguaribara, a small community in the Brazilian state of Ceará, received word that the government intended to drown their town.

Planned construction of the massive Castanhão dam and reservoir nearby would flood the town, and the entire community would have to be relocated and rebuilt 50 kilometers (31 miles) away. After years of delay and ongoing resistance, the official work order was signed in 1995; by 2001, residents had to say wrenching goodbyes to the place they had lived, loved, and grown up in, and move to a brand-new, planned community built on land donated by nearby municipalities.

In a multipart series for Jornal Diário do Nordeste called “Castanhão: 30 Years,” journalist Thatiany do Nascimento Pereira traced the many stories of heartache, community activism, and collective rebuilding that emerged from such a complex, large-scale land use decision. Homes, memories, and public landmarks were left behind in the move—yet so was much of the town’s historic economic segregation, given the blank slate of a new planned community.

The Lincoln Institute of Land Policy honored do Nascimento Pereira in November with the top prize in its 2025 Lincoln Award (Premio Lincoln) for Journalism on Urban Policy, Sustainable Development, and Climate Change, at COLPIN 2025—the Latin American Conference for Investigative Journalism. The 16th annual COLPIN, held in Buenos Aires, marked the fourth year the Lincoln Award has been offered as part of the conference.

Second prize went to a pair of Nicaraguan researchers for “The ‘Ghost Houses’ of the Ortega-Murillo’s Flagship Housing Program,” which documented unmet promises and missing millions from the government’s housing plan. The Nicaraguan journalists are now living in exile in Costa Rica due to their work highlighting the political regime’s corrupt practices.

Third prize was awarded to Mary Triny Zea Cornejo for her story “Relocation of a Population Displaced by Rising Sea Levels Threatens an Important Protected Area,” which explored Panama’s mass relocation of 300 families from Cartí Sugdup Island. The three top winners participated in a panel discussion at COLPIN; five more projects received honorable mentions.

Among the 266 entries—which came from 19 countries, across a wide variety of media, including video and interactive data visualizations—climate change and water management were consistent themes, says Laura Mullahy, senior program manager at the Lincoln Institute.

Climate change, in particular, has emerged as “a transversal theme, associated with mining, extreme weather events such as hurricanes, heat waves, and floods, and water crises that affect cities and regions,” Mullahy says. “Many of the articles link land conservation and water management with infrastructure megaprojects, tourism, and other means of transformation of protected areas.”

She’s also noticed an increase in articles that view urban planning efforts through the lens of segregation, housing, or informal settlements—where the focus is not on the practice itself, but on effects “such as eviction, rising land and housing costs, and inequality in access to services.”

Architect Miguel Jurado has served on the Lincoln Award selection committee since the outset, reviewing hundreds of contest entries each year, and says the depth of the submitted works has matured in that time. “From the initial emphasis on conservation and climate change, the focus has shifted to narratives that connect climate, territory, inequality, and economic structures,” he says.

With its focus on land use and how cities function, the Lincoln Award “has opened new thematic avenues for investigative journalism in the region,” says Adriana León, of the Lima, Peru–based IPYS (Instituto Prensa y Sociedad), which organizes COLPIN. “For IPYS and COLPIN, the Lincoln Award is an essential contribution to the goal of promoting quality journalism.”

Below, find the winners of the 2025 Lincoln Award for Journalism on Urban Policy, Sustainable Development, and Climate Change, along with links to their work. (See the 2024 winners here.)

2025 Premio Lincoln Winners

First Prize: Thatiany do Nascimento Pereira, Brazil, for the series “Castanhão: 30 Years Since the Construction Began,” published in Jornal Diário do Nordeste.

The multipart narrative reflects on how the construction of Brazil’s largest dam, begun three decades ago, forever transformed the city of Jaguaribara in the northeastern state of Ceará, completely flooding the original location. Combining memories, old photographs, and the testimonials of those who lived through this displacement, the series explores the social, political, and cultural tensions arising from the project, revealing the pain of loss but also the ways in which the community has resisted and rebuilt its identity despite displacement.

Second Prize: Equipo Divergentes and Connectas, Nicaragua, for “The ‘Ghost Houses’ of the Ortega-Murillo’s Flagship Housing Program.”

The Nicaraguan government promised to build 50,000 homes by 2026, but now reports only 6,000 delivered nationwide. Using satellite imagery, Nicaraguan researchers demonstrated that Managua’s housing plan was only 27 percent completed, despite official claims that the total investment had been fully disbursed. That leaves a deficit of $30 million and more than 4,000 homes unbuilt in the two planned developments. The investigation also revealed that financing from the Production Development Bank (BFP) and private banks carries interest rates close to 10 percent annually, meaning that over 25 years, a family will end up paying more than double the value of the house. All of this, occurring amid three- to four-year delays in delivery, has benefited companies affiliated with the political regime.

Third Prize: Mary Triny Zea Cornejo, Panama, for “Relocation of a Population Displaced by Rising Sea Levels Threatens an Important Protected Area,” published by Mongabay Latam.

Panama carried out the first mass relocation due to rising sea levels in Latin America, moving 300 families from Cartí Sugdup Island, the most populated island in the indigenous Guna Yala archipelago, to the mainland. However, the new settlement affects 11 hectares (27 acres) of forest within the Mesoamerican Biological Corridor, one of the country’s most important protected areas. This article revealed that the Environmental Impact Study omitted the long-term effects on biodiversity and the threat to the Guna people’s cultural identity. Although the government presents the relocation as a “flagship project for climate change adaptation,” experts warn that its implementation was flawed and could exacerbate environmental degradation.

Honorable Mention 1: Jorge Dett, Peru, for “Social Housing: Undercover Business?” for Latina Televisión.

Districts in the Peruvian capital of Lima such as San Isidro, Surco, and Miraflores, known for their high real estate prices, now feature buildings with units as small as 40 square meters, a result of the implementation of a new Social Interest Housing Law. This legislation allows construction in previously restricted areas, which has led to a disproportionate and unregulated increase in building construction and densification due to unclear and sometimes contradictory regulations.

Honorable Mention 2: María Luzdary Ayala, María Gabriela Ensinck, María Belén Galeano, Eirinet Gómez, Sergio Rincón, Judith Scheyer, Flávia Schiochet, Kennia Velázquez, Ahiana Figueroa, Maximiliano Manzoni, Juan David Olmos y Suhelis Tejero, CONNECTAS, PopLab (México), EcoGuia (Colombia), O Joio e o Trigo (Brasil), Argentina + Sustentable (Argentina), Consenso (Paraguay) and TalCual (Venezuela), for “Water for Ultra-Processed Foods: A Bad Deal for Latin America.”

This collaborative report reveals excesses, abuses, and inequities in the volume of water granted via concession to ultra-processed food industries in Latin America’s four largest economies. The investigation found that weak regulations, inadequate controls, and corporate lobbying combine to facilitate the excessive consumption of water, often at very low prices, in areas already experiencing severe water scarcity. This situation exacerbates the problem of water inequality for vulnerable communities.

Honorable Mention 3: Judith Herrera Cabello, Chile, for “Climate Change: How Could the Inter-American Court of Human Rights Influence the Policies Adopted by National Governments?” published by Revista Hiperlatidos, Chile.

This report examines the advisory opinion requested by Chile and Colombia from the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IACHR) regarding the responsibilities of national governments in addressing climate change and its impact on their territories and citizens. The article focuses on two main topics: the process before the IACHR and its potential effects on the public policies of the countries involved; and the impacts of climate change in Chile, such as drought, wildfires, and rising temperatures.

Honorable Mention 4: Kenneth Andrei Pérez and Arturo Contreras Camero, Mexico, for “Where Are We Going to Live?” for Capital 21.

Through personal experiences and expert analysis, this six-episode video series explores the phenomena that have driven up housing prices in Mexico City in recent years. The series seeks to explain, from both an international and national perspective, how the housing crisis is being experienced in this city, as well as possible solutions or alternatives that exist to address it.

Honorable Mention 5: Neil Marks, Guyana, for “Billions in Carbon Revenues Helping Amerindian Communities with Economic, Social, Cultural Advancement,” published by Newsroom Guyana.

Guyana earns revenue for preserving its rainforest, which blankets over 85 percent of the country, and in a single year was able to distribute more than $3.8 billion in carbon credit funds to 232 Indigenous communities as part of its Low Carbon Development Strategy (LCDS 2030).  This report details how the Indigenous village of River’s View rebuilt its dock and cultural spaces through the program. While some organizations have expressed concerns about transparency and genuine participation in the management of these resources, under the principle of free, prior, and informed consent (FPIC), the communities decide themselves how to invest the funds in infrastructure, education, or other areas of economic or cultural advancement.

Jon Gorey is a staff writer at the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy.

Lead image: The reservoir created by Brazil’s Castanhão dam, whose construction 30 years ago forced an entire community to relocate. A recent series exploring that displacement won first prize in the annual Lincoln Award for land policy journalism in Latin America. Credit: Viktor Braga via Flickr CC.

El Instituto Lincoln de Políticas de Suelo y CAF – Banco de Desarrollo de América Latina y el Caribe lanzaron la segunda edición del Anuario de la Vivienda de América Latina y el Caribe 2025 durante la Asamblea de MINURVI, celebrada del 3 al 5 de diciembre en Barbados. Este esfuerzo reafirma el compromiso de ambas instituciones con el fortalecimiento de la base estadística y analítica del sector de vivienda en la región, brindando información comparable y actualizada para orientar políticas públicas que fomenten ciudades más equitativas, sostenibles e inclusivas.

El Anuario 2025 consolida y amplía el esfuerzo iniciado en la primera edición. En esta nueva entrega, se incorporan los países Barbados, Honduras y Paraguay, alcanzando un total de 15 países con perfiles estadísticos comparables, lo que enriquece la base de datos regional y refuerza su utilidad como herramienta de análisis y toma de decisiones. En MINURVI, “el público destacó especialmente el enfoque de acceso abierto total del Anuario, que no solo pone a disposición los datos, sino las fuentes, las notas metodológicas, y el contexto necesario para garantizar tanto la comprensión como el uso riguroso y transparente de la información”, según Claudia Magalhaes Eloy, editora principal del Anuario. También, la plataforma digital del Anuario, la cual ha sido fortalecida, resaltó en la Asamblea. “Fue especialmente valorada la plataforma estadística de fácil acceso que respalda al Anuario, la cual permite generar gráficos y visualizaciones dinámicas, facilitando la interpretación de tendencias y el análisis comparado de los datos”, comenta Magalhaes Eloy.

El Anuario busca consolidarse como una herramienta de referencia para gobiernos, investigadores y actores del mercado que trabajan por ofrecer vivienda digna y mayor integración social en nuestras ciudades latinoamericanas. Los datos y análisis reunidos no solo permiten comprender mejor la realidad habitacional de la región sino también identificar oportunidades de transformación urbana que integren el suelo, la vivienda y la inclusión social en una agenda común de desarrollo.

Informalidad habitacional: el rol del acceso al suelo y al financiamiento

El tema destacado de la segunda edición del Anuario aborda uno de los desafíos urbanos más persistentes de América Latina: la vivienda informal y su relación con las políticas de uso del suelo y la planificación urbana. “Esta edición señala algunos aspectos de interés en un contexto de estabilización macroeconómica que convive con tensiones persistentes: la informalidad laboral que limita el acceso al crédito, la presión creciente sobre los alquileres y la dificultad de habilitar suelo bien localizado en entornos urbanos dinámicos”, menciona Mariana Poskus, Ejecutiva Principal de la Dirección de Hábitat y Movilidad Sostenible de CAF.

La proliferación de asentamientos informales en América Latina y el Caribe, lejos de ser un fenómeno marginal, constituye un proceso estructural vinculado a la interacción entre mercados de suelo poco accesibles, marcos regulatorios restrictivos, limitaciones en la planeación urbana y deficiencias en la provisión de infraestructura y servicios públicos. La consecuencia ha sido la consolidación de un patrón urbano caracterizado por la segregación residencial de carácter informal y la vulnerabilidad socioeconómica de millones de hogares. La dinámica de los mercados de suelo en la región explica en gran medida este resultado, ya que la escasez de suelo urbanizado con servicios adecuados, junto con la especulación inmobiliaria y altos costos de transacción, generan barreras de entrada al mercado formal de vivienda para los sectores de menores ingresos. Esta situación se ve agravada por la ausencia de mecanismos efectivos de oferta de vivienda social o suelo asequible, lo cual empuja a un amplio segmento de la población hacia soluciones informales.

La planeación urbana y las normativas de uso del suelo también han contribuido a la expansión de la informalidad. Regulaciones de suelo poco flexibles y procesos administrativos complejos excluyen a amplios sectores de la población del acceso formal a suelo y vivienda. A ello se suma el carácter frecuentemente excluyente de los reglamentos de zonificación, construcción y subdivisión, que suelen estar diseñados para hogares de ingresos medios y altos. Este sesgo eleva los costos del suelo y de la producción de vivienda formal, limitando la oferta accesible para los sectores populares. A su vez, la limitada capacidad de las autoridades locales para orientar el crecimiento urbano, sumada a restricciones presupuestarias, deriva en la falta de una planificación preventiva que promueva procesos de densificación de forma ordenada que anticipe la expansión de la mancha urbana y habilite suelo con servicios básicos de manera oportuna. La insuficiente cobertura de infraestructura y servicios públicos refuerza este círculo vicioso. En muchos casos, los asentamientos surgen y se consolidan en áreas donde el Estado carece de presencia efectiva, lo que genera déficits crónicos de servicios básicos como agua, saneamiento, electricidad y movilidad. “Al observar estos fenómenos en simultáneo, aparece una imagen más nítida de qué desafíos son estructurales, cuáles responden a ciclos económicos y dónde comienzan a surgir señales incipientes de cambio” señala Poskus.

Superar estos desafíos requiere un enfoque integral que combine políticas de acceso al suelo, flexibilidad normativa y fortalecimiento de la capacidad institucional y financiera de los gobiernos locales. Entre los campos de acción más relevantes se encuentran: la generación de suelo urbanizado asequible mediante mecanismos de gestión del valor del suelo y financiamiento de infraestructuras; la revisión de marcos normativos para permitir soluciones graduales y asequibles de vivienda; la implementación de programas de regularización o mejoramiento de asentamientos que integren servicios básicos desde una perspectiva inclusiva; y el desarrollo de instrumentos de planeación que anticipen el crecimiento urbano y lo orienten hacia un modelo sostenible y equitativo. En este sentido, el plan parcial Triángulo de Fenicia en Bogotá, así como el proyecto de mejoramiento integral Juan Bobo en Medellín, con sus respectivas limitaciones, muestran cómo es posible avanzar para generar suelo urbano con usos mixtos, reservar vivienda social en proyectos de redesarrollo, y reorganizar predios mediante planes parciales o intervenciones zonales, lo cual reduce barreras de acceso al suelo formal. Los marcos normativos adaptados (decretos, unidades de actuación, declaratorias de prioridad) permiten introducir flexibilidades y acoplar normativas a la realidad local. Las intervenciones integrales en estos proyectos combinan mejoramiento de vivienda, servicios públicos, espacio público, mitigación de riesgos y participación comunitaria. Si bien los desafíos logísticos, financieros y de coordinación siguen siendo importantes, este tipo de proyectos de transformación urbana muestran que, con voluntad política, apoyo técnico y recursos adecuados, se puede avanzar hacia un desarrollo más inclusivo.

En este mismo espíritu, la finalidad del Anuario es proporcionar una herramienta de consulta que sirva para apoyar la toma de decisiones en materia de políticas de vivienda y desarrollo urbano sostenible en la región. “Las políticas públicas efectivas se sustentan en información de calidad. Dada la complejidad del sector vivienda, los responsables de la formulación de políticas requieren datos precisos, confiables y actualizados. El Anuario responde a esta necesidad al consolidar una base de evidencia robusta, transparente y en permanente expansión, que no solo apoya mejores decisiones hoy, sino que también fortalece las bases para sistemas de vivienda más inclusivos y resilientes en toda la región en el largo plazo”, dice Magalhaes Eloy. Poskus añade, “Tal vez lo más valioso de esta segunda edición es que no busca ofrecer conclusiones definitivas, sino abrir debates con mejor información. Y en una agenda tan desafiante como la de la vivienda, creemos valioso contar con esa claridad inicial —saber qué mirar, cómo compararlo y qué preguntas hacer—”.

Luis Felipe Quintanilla es analista de políticas para el Instituto Lincoln de Políticas de Suelo.

Imagen principal: Una vista de la ciudad de São Paulo, Brasil. Crédito: Johnny Miller.