Políticas públicas de regeneración urbana habitacional y su contribución a la integración socioespacial. Casos de La Legua y Bajos de Mena, Santiago de Chile

Abstract

Socio-spatial integration is one of the greatest urban challenges in Chilean cities. This challenge has demanded urban housing policy to change from a trend of quantitative to qualitative operations, which translates into new intervention strategies and an increase in public investment focused on specific highly deteriorated polygons. For this, the Ministry of Housing and Urbanism (MINVU) has enriched the offer of plans and programs with different levels of intervention presenting in 2017 the Housing Complex Regeneration Program (PRCH). The main focus of the PRCH is oriented to the recomposition of the physical, social and economic fabric (CNUD, 2021) showing potential as a good alternative to address segregation. This article reviews different definitions of segregation and social integration extracting different concepts and compiling a new definition of socio-spatial integration, and then presents two case studies where the PRCH is developing interventions with different strategies in the city of Santiago: Bajos de Mena in Puente Alto and Legua Emergencia in San Joaquín, analyzing how the PRCH could improve both the physical and social aspects of integration. Final reflections highlight the challenges for the PRCH to better serve the intervened neighborhoods.