Housing abandonment in Mexican metropolitan areas : analyzing planning strategies to reduce housing abandonment in the Metro Area of Guadalajara

Abstract

This thesis examines the potential impact and limitations that current metropolitan efforts on urban planning in the Metropolitan Area of Guadalajara could have in reducing the high rates of housing abandonment the city currently faces. Previous efforts to reduce housing abandonment in the city have not delivered the expected results, and the metropolitan government of Guadalajara has laid out a new Metropolitan Urban Development Plan (POTmet) that seeks to rethink housing allocation and reduce home abandonment. In this document I analyze POTmet's housing allocation and abandonment strategies through interviews with key stakeholders involved in the elaboration process of the plan. I create a narrative around these interviews to understand how stakeholders' interests translate into the final strategy outlined in the POTmet. Later, I contrast these findings with previous efforts to reduce housing abandonment in Guadalajara and with the factors that are currently understood as determinants of the abandonment problem. I discuss what the success and limitations of the POTmet could be in reducing housing abandonment and conclude that, while the POTmet successfully brings together key stakeholders that could work together to reduce home abandonment, previous interests that have driven the abandonment problem in the city are still present in the new proposal. The POTmet also fails to target important contributing factors of abandonment, diminishing its potential for success. I discuss these findings and propose new lines of research and action that the City of Guadalajara can take to achieve its objectives to reduce housing abandonment.