Due to their advancing age and often declining incomes, most owners face severe constraints ontheircapacity to make majoron- lot housing refurbishments. With the exception of the home owners in Santiago, Chile, relatively few of the people with whom we spoke view the local or state authorities as a likely source of improvements at the home level, and instead expect to have to continue to depend upon their own efforts. To the limited extent that overseas remittances are a feature (only in Mexico City, Santo Domingo and Lima), somewhat to our surprise we found that re- mittances are rarely used for home construction, extension or housing rehab. We find that middle-income homeowners and thoseadultchildrenexperiencingupwardsocio-economicmobility are most likely and best capable of achieving significant rehabili- tation. For them, housing rehabilitation entails substantial remodeling, and sometimes a tear down and rebuild. Garaging a private vehicle off street is an increasing priority and is usually achieved by converting a patio or front room. Senior level policy makers generally have low awareness about the ongoing housing needs of consolidated low-income settle- ments,andtheytendtounderprioritizeandpoorlyunderstandthe dimensions of settlement rehabilitation. This became apparent in our key informant interviews when policy makers often expressed interest in our research and policy directions, but could not un- derstand why our priorities were not targeting upgrading and infrastructure provision in the periphery. To the extent that they focused upon consolidated informal settlements at all, their con- cerns were primarily about insecurity, drug gangs and crime. Conversely, local government and NGO policy makers and actors have higher sensitivity to social problems and to the need for poverty alleviation programs for vulnerable populations in such
Fig. 5. Interior staircase to third floor which required forcing a new opening in the concrete ceiling of the second floor. Isidro Fabela colonia, Mexico City