Twenty years of ‘Los con techo’: A Conversation on the unpaid debts of Chile’s housing policy

Two decades after the publication of the book Los con techo (Those with a roof), its authors Alfredo Rodríguez and Ana Sugranyes reflect on how this emblematic study of Chile’s social housing model implemented between 1980 and 2002 was conceived, and how the publication of the book impacted a model that, though successful in numbers, generated an enormous stock of inadequate housing. In this Conversation, the authors recall the political context that motivated their research, questioning the housing model based on subsidies and oriented toward quantity rather than quality. They also share details about the process of producing the book, including their efforts to disseminate its findings, which turned the publication into a critical reference in Chile and Latin America. Today, the challenges persist: the problem is not only one of housing but of the city itself. The authors call for rethinking the role of society as a whole in building fairer cities.