This paper proposes a technique for undertaking poverty analyses at city level, by studying the implementation of Costa Rica’s social housing policy in the medium-sized city of Liberia. The technique was appraised in relation to its capacity to explore the links between social housing, poverty and inequality, the effects of the implementation of the selected policy and the differences between targeting implementation strategies. The technique helps to clarify the effects that housing policies have on poverty reduction in Liberia. In particular, the use of an urban residential segregation approach in small-area poverty analyses allows the identification of concrete deprived urban areas and the prioritisation of feasible pro-poor land-based actions; therefore, it shows potential as a tool for urban planning and local decision-making.

The struggle for equality is fundamental to the reduction of poverty in Central America. Besides, one of the foremost goals of urban spatial planning, when implementing social policies, is to contribute to the reduction of poverty. This is done by producing a list of territorially-based actions and selecting those suitable for the implementation of social policies developed at national level. However, urban planners working with local authorities in the Region face political, managerial, financial and technical limitations for adequately conducting this task. Of particular interest to this paper are the limited options they have for technically assessing the impact that territorially-based actions have on reducing inequality, and therefore poverty.An operational methodology is proposed in this paper, as a step forward to enable planners to simulate, assess and monitor the impact of territorially-based actions on inequality, and to promote the use of evidence from statistical data when proposing, implementing and monitoring those actions. The methodology is introduced by inscribing it in the context of urban spatial planning, presenting the concepts that underpin it, describing how it is intended to work, and illustrating its use through the presentation of an empirical study. r

Este artículo presenta un estudio empírico de la ciudad intermedia costarricense de Liberia, el cual analiza las características de los proyectos de Vivienda de Interés Social (VIS) implementados en esa ciudad y su relación con la distribución urbana de la pobreza y la inequidad territorial. El pujante crecimiento económico de la ciudad de Liberia, y de su provincia Guanacaste, es ampliamente conocido en Costa Rica, pero no lo es el proceso de polarización socio-económica en el que se encuentra. Particularmente, y luego de la aplicación de una novedosa metodología para el análisis urbano, se encontró que si bien la implementación de los proyectos VIS ha beneficiado a cerca del 20% de su población -mayoritariamente a familias muy pobres-, también ha contribuido a la generación de lo que podría llamarse 'enclaves de pobreza' al costado norte de la ciudad, reduciendo las posibilidades de desarrollo de las familias que allí residen. El estudio, que a continuación se presenta, pone en evidencia el potencial que tiene la planificación urbana y la implementación de la política social de vivienda, para, más allá de entregar viviendas dignas a quienes las necesitan, también colaborar en la consecución de ciudades más incluyentes y sociedades más equitativas

This paper introduces a new technique that uses small administrative unit poverty maps. The paper shows a pilot application of the proposed technique using census-tract data of the medium-size city of Liberia, Costa Rica in four functions of urban planning: appraisal, simulation, decision-making and assessments. The piloting of the technique made possible to identify the territorial concentration of poverty and inequality, simulate the impact on poverty reduction of alternative landbased actions, engage different actors to discuss and agree on a plan of actions and thereby promote transparency and accountability in decision-making, and assess the impact on poverty reduction of the implementation of the social housing policy in Liberia. The technique may help to promote the development and use of timely and reliable census-tract data. It also incorporates a residential segregation approach to traditional poverty analyses, which proved to be helpful for poverty analyses at small administrative unit levels.