FORMALIZATION OF HOUSING IN SAN JOSE, COSTA RICA: A community pathway to legal incorporation

Abstract

This work explores urban informal housing and development strategies with a process centered purpose in the urban core of San José, Costa Rica. It seeks to explain how communities obtain change in formal housing status and move toward legal incorporation. Original fieldwork, comprised of field observation, archival documentation, and interviews, examined the nature of formalization as experienced by informal settlements. Guided by a theoretical framework based on models of the informal economy and political ecology, the results of this research demonstrate complex levels of formality expressed by housing communities, redefining traditional concepts of the urban periphery and informal sector. Furthermore, case studies and documented changes in registered land tenancy identify four distinct stages in this process of formalization: land invasion, housing associations, development projects, and legal incorporation. In a multi-scale web of players, including communities, NGOs, and government, understanding each stage is necessary for effective policy-making and positive urban transformation.