Project to urbanize the “Villa 31”

The “Villa 31” and “Villa 31 bis” [shantytowns], located in the area of Retiro (surrounding the “Arturo Illia” Highway), occupies around 31 hectares. Although there are no certain data on how many people live there, according to the census, it is close to 27 thousand; still, according to some private organizations, statistics show that the number amounts to 47 thousand people living in the “Villa 31”.

In that area, since the constructions they make are constructed with the materials they can get, more than 60 constructions are in danger of collapsing. This has generated an initiative of promoting the urbanization of the Villa 31 in Retiro.

Two years ago, a law to make the project of urbanization of the villa 31 was enacted. This law orders the creation of the “Mesa de Gestion y Planeamiento Multidisciplinaria y Participativa” [area of organization and planning] in order to organize and monitor the project. This organization team is formed by some member of the Legislative and executive power of the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires, the Technical team who created the fore-project of the urbanization of the Villa 31, and the elected candidates who live in the Villa 31 and 31 bis, among others. After two years, this group of people has signed a report which specifies some points that were still to be organized in order to start with this urbanization project.

In the law, it was stipulated that people was not going to be evicted from their homes; only those who were living on dangerous areas or houses that were overcrowded were going to be relocated. According to some information given, it is clear that in order to urbanize the Villa 31, streets need to be laid, as well as infrastructure work needs to be done (drains, light and gas). Is has been estimated that around 9 thousand houses need to be built.

After years of analyzes and dispute, the project for the urbanization of the Villa 31 seems to be moving. It is only a matter of seeing if, within time, if it finally becomes a reality.