Description

Housing for the Working Class of Mexico City: A New Version of Gated Communities

This article examines a new type of gated communities that has developed in the periphery of Mexico City, the foregoing versions of which were residential complexes promoted by the two major housing organizations. Changes in urban and housing policy from the 1990s onward enabled access to the financial resources of the workers’ fund and to large expanses of agricultural, socially owned land (ejidos). This encouraged the construction of large complexes of thousands of “social” dwellings that, by taking advantage of the reputation for exclusiveness and safety supposedly provided by the gated communities that were built for the rich, meant profitable real estate business in offering new gated communities for workers segregated and disconnected from the urban fabric and services.

gated communities, Mexico, housing policies

Citation: Social Justice Vol. 33, No. 3 (2006): 129-141