Urban precarity, evictions and housing in the historic center of lima

This paper addresses the mechanisms for residential access to deteriorated buildings in the historic central area of Lima, disputes over land use and evictions as a way of appropriating property. Based on qualitative information from field work in the center of Lima, it is suggested that Barrios Altos has been turning into a precarious urban area since the mid-twentieth century. This precarity is expressed mainly in property issues, residential strategies, and tenure. In this context evictions configure the strategies and actions of residents who live in the middle of the principal tensions in the area: the dispute between residential function and the need for an expansion of urban centralities for trade and services. This topic has the peculiarity of being disregarded by urban research; therefore, the aim is providing a critical point of view in the study of central historical areas and contributing to a better understanding of residential reproduction in working class sectors.