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By Jen Shin and Anna Kustar of the World Resources Institute
On the eastern edge of Buenos Aires, residents of the Rodrigo Bueno neighbourhood take a break from pick-up soccer games and stretch out on grassy knolls. Further down the road, a kitchen buzzes with locals testing new recipes to feature at the neighbourhood food hall. New housing blocks, featuring solar heating, frame older homes and border the shared civic space. But the people who lived in Rodrigo Bueno did not always enjoy this gentle cadence of life.
Rodrigo Bueno emerged in the early 1980s as a villa of informal, self-built homes on precarious reclaimed river land. The neighbourhood did not have access to basic services such as clean water, sewers or electricity, or to schools, healthcare and other government services. As is often the case with informal settlements, Rodrigo Bueno was exposed to more significant climatic risks due to its high density and lack of ventilation, and in this case, dangerous proximity to a flood-prone canal.
For more than 10 years, the city tried to evict residents and remove their homes. But residents found ways to delay and block eviction, demonstrating a high degree of self-organisation and self-efficacy. Meanwhile, creeping climate change sent floods lapping at their doors with poorly built homes risking collapse into the canal.
But in 2016, a new city administration dropped the legal battles over eviction and adopted a new strategy to address Rodrigo Bueno’s challenges, one that included collaboration and shared decision-making with the residents. The results would prove transformative.
A collaborative approach to housing improvements
The overall goals of the Rodrigo Bueno neighbourhood upgrade project were multi-faceted and included an integrated approach that changed the focus from the government imposing changes to an inclusive process concentrated on housing integration, urban connectivity and socio-economic opportunities.
Changes to the neighbourhood came from the work of Buenos Aires’ Housing Institute, which appointed a “territorial team” comprised of social workers, anthropologists and architects who spent time in Rodrigo Bueno meeting directly with residents every day. The team got to know every resident and learn their personal stories, whether it was celebrating new jobs and birthdays, listening to the struggles of immigrants starting a new life, or of children having difficulty getting to school. This slow, consistent and ongoing engagement over eight years has fostered a strong sense of trust, enabling the neighbours and the Housing Institute to co-create neighbourhood amenities and policies tailored to residents’ needs.
One of the first changes came in 2017, when the territorial team played a crucial role in shaping and passing a new law that formally recognised Rodrigo Bueno residents’ land and home ownership. Historically, residents of informal villas do not legally own the land where they’ve built their homes, living in constant fear of eviction and cutting them out of many municipal services and job opportunities.
Neighbours often watched over each other’s homes, but this precarity can have long-term economic and social consequences. “Initially, you had to sneak in and out [to work],” says Pedro Antonio Candia, a resident of 19 years. “Someone had to stay at home, or else someone might intrude. We would take turns, or a neighbour would watch the house.”
Following the new law, a series of physical changes began. A new street system was installed. Residents received home addresses and could receive mail and register for city services. Businesses could appear on maps. Emergency services could reach residents.
On this new street grid, 611 new energy-efficient, multi-family housing units, with solar-powered water heating systems, were constructed and offered to residents. Mortgage prices for new homes were determined by income, and the value of residents’ old self-built homes was discounted from the total cost.
Critically, residents had the option of staying in their own homes if they were not in immediate danger of collapse. Existing homes received structural, aesthetic and infrastructure upgrades. The choice to move or stay ensures that residents maintain autonomy and control throughout the neighbourhood integration process. Those whose homes were too close to the canal edge were given the choice to swap with another resident who elected to move into a new building.
Creating jobs through resilience and sustainability
Resilience and environmental protection were also key elements to improving the Rodrigo Bueno community. In 2022, the Housing Institute began remediation work of the canal that forms one of the borders of the neighbourhood.
So far, the canal has been cleaned up, a stormwater control system has been installed and a retaining wall was built to reduce flooding. When it’s completed, a “coastal edge” will support a promenade behind it, offering more public space to residents.
The Housing Institute also led various skills and training workshops for residents, including a three-month workshop on gardening and agriculture, which led to the creation of the La Vivera Organica plant nursery in 2019. Setup by 14 local women, the nursery cultivates native species found at the adjacent Costanera Sur wetland reserve and serves as a source of fresh local produce.
As Covid-19 lockdowns began, La Vivera Organica provided fresh local food to the community and donated produce to the most vulnerable residents. The business has helped the neighbourhood connect with the broader city as well. In 2021, a gastronomic patio was opened to serve both residents and visitors to the ecological preserve and the Hilton Buenos Aires committed to purchasing 100% of its organic produce from La Vivera.
Elizabeth Cuenca, a resident of Rodrigo Bueno and commercial manager at La Vivera, believes the new relationship between city government and residents has been instrumental to the success of the housing project. “With the neighbours’ participation as a priority, the results were better,” she says. “The [Housing Institute] knows what people need, but we knew exactly what we needed here.”
Upward mobility and a return to roots
The Housing Institute’s gradual, participatory and holistic approach to improving the neighbourhood is a critical lesson for many cities around the world. There are an estimated 1.2 billion urban dwellers who lack access to secure and affordable housing.
Linking social, economic and housing interventions is a combination that the Housing Institute is employing across other informal settlements in Buenos Aires, benefiting more than 70,000 residents. Each neighbourhood has its own nuances and priorities, such as schools, healthcare centres or green spaces.
For Rodrigo Bueno, the results have gone beyond just material benefits. Blanca Brizuela Duarte, a resident since 1998 and owner of a stand in the neighbourhood food hall, takes pride in sharing her traditional dishes from Paraguay. “This was part of the project, us being cooks who struggle to maintain our grandmothers’ old recipes,” she says. “I have customers from the neighbourhood and from everywhere else — from the city, from San Telmo, from La Boca — they come to try our dishes, and they leave happily. That’s what this food court is about: It’s about love, about love for what we have.”
- This article was first published here by the World Resources Institute. It was republished with the institute’s permission. The 2023-2024 WRI Ross Center Prize for Cities celebrates projects and initiatives building momentum for climate-ready communities. From five finalists, one grand prize winner will be announced on September 25.
