By urbanization in 2015 !!! International Conference on Housing. UNIC Argentina International Conference on Housing “Strengthening urbanization projects and cultural action with community residents” CINU Information Center of the United Nations RHA: April 11, 2013 The international Conference on Housing, entitled “Strengthening urbanization projects and cultural action with community residents” recently took place, focusing on a problem that affects many communities in our country, Argentina. The conference occurred on April 11, 2013 from 10:00-1:00 p.m. in the auditorium of the CINU – the Information Center for the United Nations – in Buenos Aires and was organized by the Housing Network of Argentina (Red Hábitat Argentina). The opening of the session was conducted by David Smith, the Director of CINU, and Laura García Tuñon, a city legislator in Buenos Aires. They discussed the importance of working together in a coordinated manner. Additionally, the director graciously opened the discussion for this very important moment in the history of the human settlements in Argentina that are fighting for urban development, and for all similar places throughout the country and city: “I am delighted to come to the United Nations to work on these themes, here there are the villas miserias (shantytowns), there are favelas in Brazil, everywhere there are distinct faces of poverty. The world is changing, I know that you all know the statistics as do I, who worked as a journalist for many years, and we see that it isn’t only here in Villa 31, one can go to Mendoza, to Salta, and you will see it, just as you can go to Río or Sao Paolo and you can see it. It is the same as when I lived in Nairobi in the 1970s, and the small cities there now number over 6 million people. I hope to see these organizations continue to work on this topic and I hope that you all come to the United Nations [to collaborate]. I also hope that you enjoy the workshop today. Thanks to the legislator for coming and to all of you, thank you.” Similarly, the legislator from Buenos Aires, García Tuñon, appeared to be committed to work hard on the plans presented and to assist with the process in the meetings of the organizations which she frequently attends. She discussed the number of irregularities that the City of Buenos Aires has, with informal settlements, shanty towns, people living in abandoned housing, such as in the areas around the old AU3 highway. She stated, “Only with organization and mobilization, as you all know, is it possible to put these topics on the agenda. There are projects such as those of Rodrigo Bueno, La Carbonilla, and various other projects, but they are not dealt with and this has been happening for many years, it is not only because of this government administration. So we need to organize ourselves and apply pressure in order to have these projects dealt with and we need to move away from the apathy that the government currently has in order to resolve these problems. You can count on us but don’t stop working to make these issues visible to society at large, so that they may become visible to everyone. I believe this is the way forward and we must continue with this. Thank you.” The objective of this conference was to discuss, learn about, and affect public policies related to housing and habitat, access to adequate shelter, and the cooperation between social organizations and the state in these regards. During the conference, Maryluz Zambrana spoke. She explained that in El Playon de Chacarita they were working for the urban developemnt of the neighborhoods and she raised a number of questions: “The neighborhoods are growing day by day, but they’ve been abandoned by the current government, there is no motivation to improve them, and on the other side we are fighting for basic services. In this case you may think that they are small things, but they are very important, like water, sewer systems, electricity and gas. And on top of that, there is a struggle between the nation and the city for the transfer of the land and we remain trapped in the middle.” For her part, Luisa Morlaes discussed the treatment that the project in El Playon de Chacarita had in the nation’s legislature and worried about the advancement of urban development in this neighborhood. She stated, “[we need] to continue with the work and consolidate the work between the nation and the city in order for the transfer of lands and the subsequent deeding of the land to the families. But, also, we know that we have resources assigned by the legislature and that they are approved, such as, for example, two and a half million pesos for Carbonilla and two million pesos for us in El Playon de Chacarita, and we have ask, where are these resources? Well, no one knows where they are.” Catalina Chevez Abarca indicated that these resources are for work that is very necessary in the communities, stating that “the things that we requested are included as rights in the majority of the international treaties that they [the government] has signed, but we continue to be without alternatives to improve our quality of life.” Thus the delegates form Playón de Chacarita Maryluz, Luisa, and Catalina made their points. Following this, the delegates form the neighborhood of La Carbonilla spoke. “Good afternoon, everyone, my name is Sonia Anriques, and I am here to represent the community of La Carbonilla. I represent Sector 2. We have been a part of this struggle for a long time, like many of the other delegates here, and we represent approximately 500 families, all who are expectantly awaiting our negotiations for the urbanization of the neighborhood. We have done a variety of different activities to strengthen our neighborhood, both internal and external. In 2012 we participated in the World Habitat Day with the participation of the legislators of the city and court of the judge Dr. Liberatori, and in the Law of Urbanization project. In the legislature also they approved a proposal to improve the neighborhood, such as, for example, to provide electric lines, and this project was equivalent to two hand a half million pesos. This would be resolving for us what is a grave inconvenience in that the electricity went out just after this, the cables burned, as did other electrical appliances, we had at first a fire and luckily there were no victims thanks to the rapid intervention of neighbors. In this area we have to keep in mind that there are all the time more families coming to live in the cities. For example in our neighborhood we are feeling the rapid growth of population and the formation of new families. We have continued to mobilize with our neighborhood and with other groups that are in the same struggle for adequate shelter. We have demonstrated in the streets and on highways, we have gone to the IVC and to the ACECHI, we have created permanent committees in order to coordinate activities, assume responsibilities and keep our neighbors informed, such that in the end, we have developed an organization that works well.” In the same way, Pilar Chávez made reference to the method of seeking help from Judge Liberatori for the lack of services and urgent precautionary measures: “We don’t have sewers, we don’t have electricity. We put in a proposal but they have dropped the ball. No one knows where it is and we are trying to resolve the problem of electricity. We need the city to respond to our basic needs – electricity, sewers, water. We need the nation to cede us the land so that we can live in peace, because if not the owners of the land are going to show up and the residents won’t know what to do.” For his part, Luis Espinosa from the Rodrigo Bueno neighborhood commented that the negotiations were at a standstill after the agreement between the city and the national government over the land that they were living on and he was hoping to get out of this desperate situation that was not moving forward. The urban scholar Daniela Szajnberg, who is the director of the research team from FADU-UBA, demonstrated in her presentation the development of the project they are working on in conjunction with the families in La Carbonilla. This work was requested by the Red Hábitat since this research team has done research on urbanization in shantytowns and informal settlements which stresses the importance of the right to design, the right to beauty, and the right to public space, which are still today given secondary status. This research is conducted with the active participation of the community through workshops, where the participants always remark that this is a mutual learning opportunity. Mónica Galván from EDAS-OTA in Tucumán explained the serious situation of the informal settlements in that province and said that she is convinced that a solution is possible and that the fight should continue. She argued that the problem is that the nation does not have a plan for urbanization. She said that this generates a lot of inequality in the fight for land and housing and that there are few people in this state that are interested in resolving problems, and as a result, policies of social inclusion are not generated which incorporate the informal settlements and shantytowns. Jorge Flores from Villa Warcalde in the province of Córdoba remarked that their settlement had no exits: they were surrounded by wires and that they didn’t even have any emergency exits for ambulances. Walter Morea, the coordinator of the Red Patagónica de Hábitat (Patagonian Network for Housing) is trying to find a justification to initiate a process to enable the 200 families that are in San Martín de los Andes not to be evicted (the land belongs to the army), keeping in mind that the settlement is surrounded by neighborhoods with a lot of purchasing power. He also presented a very important experience that his organization had with the children of the community called “the children aren’t born thieves.” The families of the settlement “Neighbors United” from Villa Celina were represented by Arístides Cristaldo and Bernardino Paredes who remarked that “we also have the same problem, the project of urbanization is not moving forward and the only thing that we have is electricity. We want to pay taxes and one day become an official neighborhood, because right now we are nobody, our neighborhood isn’t accounted for anywhere. We want to get started with the urbanization of the neighborhood and we are also located on state land. All of these issues were directed to our Federal Public Defender Cecilia Lorusso who explained the prospects and the possible actions to take, so that we can also become familiar with each case, submitting the forms for the presentation of each of these themes in an official manner. In this way, facing the same set of desperate conditions, the majority of cases take over twenty years of negotiation.” Carlos Calatayud, the consultant to Jorge Cardelli, a national congressional representative, appraised the organization and the important informative workshop that was being conducted: “These projects serve to demonstrate and take one more step toward the rights of all of citizens, not just those of the city, but also those that inhabit all of our land. With this idea and with this intention the Law of Urbanization project for the neighborhood La Carbonilla has begun. I invite everyone to continue this fight and we will be able to develop an agenda to confront these problems.” Carlos Varga from the cooperative San Telmo Ex Padelai discussed the activities that they are engaged in and invited everyone to participate in that experience, since they are continue their struggle with to the help of numerous social organizations. He also invited all to the International Habitat Conference that they are going to conduct in Padelai to commemorate World Habitat Day on October 7, 2013. Finally, in the last part of the conference, Zulema Rios from Frente NOA and Alba Castillo from Mujeres Campesinos de Santiago del Estero raised the importance of the cultural question in these neighborhoods. Zulema remarked that “culture is work, culture is development, culture is life. We are working within the framework of Law 341 of the city and nowadays they want to nationalize and we want to promote the Ministry of Housing that we no longer have. I encourage you not to be afraid of the system, not to be ashamed, and keep up with the fight.” Alba commented, “I have heard that we are always going around in circles asking for our rights and it is very difficult to get laws approved because it is always in the hands of the legislators that we elect, but that they don’t represent us and we don’t have legislators that come from our own neighborhoods, from our own organizations. Of the sixty legislators, who comes from the marginalized or among the 250 congressional representatives, who has come from the downtrodden? These people’s walls don’t fly away when there is wind.” For the closing of the conference, Luis Saavedra from Villa 31 spoke to the audience to summarize the initiatives taken by his neighborhood for political action: “because we always are going to be coming up with plans and others will continue to have the power. In other words, we need to with marches, demonstrations, and through this we will keep going.” Aniana Gonzales, a beneficiary of Ley 341, commented on her journey of being a landowner with no house. In this way, and with the showing of a video by Pachamama, the long workshop came to an end with the commitment for a definitive solution to the serious housing problem in Argentina. As now is customary, the Habitat Network of Argentina will soon make available videos and transcriptions of this important workshop. Thanks to everyone.
Posted on: Sun, 28 Dec 2014 14:45:29 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015