Te Vas o Te Quedas? Variations in the Explanations for Housing Abandonment in Tijuana, México

Clothes hanging to dry outside of houses in Valle de las Palmas. Houses in this development are as small as 32 sq. meters.
Date
Author
Francisco Lara-García (MUP ’16)
Prizes

Thesis Prize in Urban Design

Faculty Advisor
Diane Davis

Francisco Lara-García (MUP ’16)

Tijuana, a city along the Mexican border with the United States, is currently suffering from a housing abandonment crisis. Various interpretations have been offered to explain the occurrence of the phenomenon, but none of these satisfactorily account for the uneven distribution of abandonment in the city. Through a mixed-methods investigation, this study explores the variation in explanations for housing abandonment. It finds that the “distance” that stakeholders have from the problem of abandonment has an effect on the complexity of explanations that these actors are likely to offer. It concludes with a discussion of the implications of this finding on Mexican housing policy, ending with prospective policy paths that could incorporate more effective multi-scalar, multi-agent approaches to housing provision.

Thesis Advisor: Diane Davis