A Study on Public Housing Welfare Legislation : Argentina Ⅱ(HOUSING POLICIES AND REGULATORY FRAMEWORK)

Abstract

This report provides an overview and analysis of Argentina’s main policies regarding the right to housing. Its aim is twofold. First, it explains and describes the legal framework upholding the right to housing in Argentina as it stands today more than fifty years after the first explicit recognition by the National constitution. Indeed, during the twentieth century, positive rights began to be included in many legal systems. Argentina followed this trend starting in 1949 with a constitutional amendment and the right to housing was established since then as a central element of the legal system. Second, it presents an analysis of how the government has sought to comply with the constitutional mandates. That is, in spite of having a constitutional right to housing, a sizable fraction of the Argentine population lives in extremely precarious conditions, even in the streets. As a result, at least since 1977, low-income housing has occupied a central position in government policies. This report describes the housing policies developed by the Federal government since 1977, as well as on the housing policies developed by the government of the City of Buenos Aires. The paper is structured as follows. Section 2 provides a basic deion of the housing situation at the National level and in the City of Buenos Aires. Section 3 analyzes the right to housing as it is regulated both at the Federal level and in the City of Buenos Aires looking, in particular, to the Argentine National Constitution, the many international treaties signed by the country and the constitution of the City of Buenos Aires. Section 4 examines the most important housing policies developed by both the Federal Government and the Government of the City of Buenos Aires. Finally, section 5 concludes briefly with an assessment of the right to housing and a few suggestions about future steps that federal and local authorities should consider in order to promote the right to housing.