Ecuador was the first country in the world to recognise the right to housing in its constitution. Researchers Vanessa Pinto Valencia, Marco Córdova Montúfar and Diana Bell Sancho explore the meaning of this important step forward.

Although several countries have been formulating housing policies in terms of rights, Ecuador was the first to formally recognise and incorporate the concept of the right to the city and the right to housing, in its 2008 Constitution. It was part of a new political project that claimed an alternative development model based on the notion of Buen Vivir (Good Living). The recognition of the right to the city in Ecuador’s Constitution reflects the outcomes of forums and charters developed within civil society and is based on the democratic management of the city, the social and environmental function of property, and the full exercise of citizenship.

The Ecuadorian experience of the last decade appears, in this sense, as a relevant case study to understand and explain how the concept of the right to the city, understood not only as a discursive framework but also as a binding constitutional principle, has influenced the transformation of housing and habitat policies.

Understanding the concept

First, we need to briefly look at theory and context. In recent decades, the right to the city has become a fundamental concept relating to sustainable urban development and the expansion of human rights. Heir to the Marxist tradition of the social construction of space, the concept claims urban living as a collective project, based on the rights of inhabitants to create and take on the city and its processes. It’s therefore a political concept of struggle and social mobilisation, but at the same time a transforming force of urban dynamics.

One of the areas that’s driven the political meaning and collective action of the right to the city is the social production of housing and habitat. At an international level, through the principles stipulated in New Urban Agenda (2016), social housing policies have expanded the vision of overcoming shortages based only on helping people access housing, to a comprehensive reading of a sustainable habitat produced in a participatory manner. To analyse how the constitutional recognition of the right to the city impacted housing and habitat policies we examined three moments in time, according to the corresponding periods of government.

• In the first moment, the objectives included in the public policy instruments were closely related to the fundamental principles of the right to the city but lacked mechanisms to operationalise them (2009-2013 period).
• In a second moment, policy instruments began to be developed to embed this right, although they were not fully implemented due to certain institutional and coordination weaknesses (period 2013-2017).

In the two periods, although the principles of the right to the city were present in a range of policy objectives, they weren’t reflected adequately in the policy instruments implemented. Budget allocation in this period concentrated on social housing programs under a demand subsidy scheme model. It wasn’t connected to strategies for the social production of habitat or urban development that promote the guarantee of the right to the city.

• In a third moment, in the context of a change of government, the right to the city faded away in public policy instruments (2017-2021). Although policy objectives were more aligned with the principles of the right to the city, social housing programs maintained the model of previous periods and even reduced the focus on low-income families. The lack of budget allocation writ large to habitat and urban development projects and housing programs didn’t allow for the effective implementation of policies or changes to advance the right to the city.

It should be noted that, in all periods, a housing policy focused on the delivery of housing subsidies and disconnected from urban development processes and the social production of habitat prevailed.

How policy developed

In 2009, the National Plan for Good Living/Plan Nacional para el Buen Vivir (PNBV), was created. This included a policy specifically aimed at guaranteeing the right to the city and other related policies. However, it lacked indicators to account for the objectives proposed and policies related to the right to the city didn’t correlate with the housing policy. The latter remained under the logic of a subsidy demand model that had been implemented for the previous 10 years, but with a more robust budget.

According to several studies, investments were made in programs disjointed from sustainable and inclusive processes of urban development and community participation in housing production. Nonetheless, official figures show a reduction in the housing shortage during this period.

Later came some institutional changes in an attempt to transform the logic that prevailed in housing policy. The National Policy on Sustainable Habitat, Human Settlements and Adequate Housing was brought forward and the Undersecretariat of Habitat and Human Settlements (SHAH) was created within the Ministry of Urban Development and Housing in 2010. SHAH designed urban development projects and developed interventions in public spaces, among other actions. However, its management was disjointed from housing programmes, which continued to be developed outside urban centres and without considering the population’s active participation.

Another fundamental milestone in the post constitutional process was the enactment of the Organic Law on Land Planning, Land Use and Management (LOOTUGS), in 2016. This includes a set of land planning and management instruments aligned with the principles of the right to the city. However, its implementation depends on local government’s land use and management competencies while housing policy is executed by the central government, generating limitations in the implementation of this instrument to transform housing policy.

In 2017, with the end of Rafael Correa’s government, there was a rupture with the new president, although, in terms of housing policy, the same approach was maintained and efforts were focused on the flagship programme “Casa para Todos” (Housing for All, or CPT). This programme aimed to build 325,000 houses. Achievement toward the goal was very low and the right to the city was made invisible in public policy instruments, although several strategies were related to its principles.

Learning points

The Ecuadorian experience offers important lessons on how constitutional recognition of the right to the city can influence national housing policy. The process highlights the limitations of constructing a rights-based policy. But it also suggests what steps could be taken to advance new approaches to national housing policy that take into account the critical interrelationship of the right to housing and the right to the city. Our study puts focus on how the coherence (or not) between the intended policy objectives and the policy instruments implemented impacted the advancement of the principles of the right to the city.

The recognition of the right to the city in the public agenda is an opportunity for rethinking housing policies through the social production of habitat, social function of property and broader urban development strategies. As this framework continues to be mobilised in other contexts around the region and globe as one that holds transformative potential, the lessons drawn from the Ecuadorian experience are highly relevant.

In hand with policy objectives that advance the principles of the right to the city, concrete policy instruments (indicators, laws, budget allocations, institutions) are needed that transform traditional approaches to social housing programs. These instruments need to effectively articulate housing policies with habitat and urban development programs as well as with local land use and management competencies.

Vanessa Pinto Valencia and Marco Córdova Montúfar are based at FLASCO Ecuador. Diana Bell Sancho is an independent consultant and research affiliate with the MIT displacement Research and Action network, USA

Full research report https://tinyurl.com/56rut2hs