Housing shortage in Chile: study showed that 640,000 homes are lacking

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – There is nowhere to live. That was the clear result of the first Estimation and Characterization of the Housing Deficit in Chile, a study carried out by Déficit Cero (a think tank that arose from the Techo Foundation) and the Public Policy Center of the Catholic University.

The document highlighted the lack of housing in the country: according to the survey, there is a lack of 641,721 homes in Chile, the highest figure recorded in the last 30 years in the country.

Along with the number, they were able to show that the lack of housing is not a problem that only affects those who live in camps or those living on the streets: there is a significant percentage of those who live in overcrowded or irreparable housing conditions.

In numbers, those living in these conditions are 541,295 people living in one of the aforementioned conditions, which translates into 84.6% of the gap. These are 8.3% of the total housing stock in the country.

In the case of those living in camps, they are 81,643 families, according to a cadastre made by Techo in 2021. The figure could have increased last year due to the health and economic crisis. Valparaíso concentrates the largest number, with 29.2% of the total of these irregular settlements (225).

Although it is in the Metropolitan region where most of the families living in shantytowns are concentrated (53.4%), the greatest need for houses is in the north: 17% of the families living in overcrowded or unrecoverable housing are in Tarapacá, 13.3% in Antofagasta and 11.9% in Arica and Parinacota.

Héctor Guarda, chaplain of Techo, was highly critical of the figures: “The issue of the housing deficit, as a State in Chile, we have failed, we have failed. We are talking about 640,000 housing units, which did not arise overnight; they were years and decades of not very good management by the government. Reaching this number results from a certain inexistence of the government”.

Meanwhile, the Minister of Housing, Carlos Montes, said in a conversation with 24 Horas: “Different things affected here: the price of land is one; during the outbreak, and after the pandemic, there were people who could not pay their rents and had to leave. It cannot be solved from one day to the next, but the government is convinced that 260,000 houses will be built and that those living in camps will have access to them”.