Sustainable Communities

Phase III: Sustainable Communities

In the final phase, UTPMP helps families living in slums develop their own sustainable community with strong social capital, bonds between neighbors and links to external networks.  The goal is for residents to unify as a community and work together for the common good, organizing and participating directly as well as democratically electing representatives to lead the process.  The community must determine its own priorities, examine problems, brainstorm solutions and develop concrete goals and methods to achieve them.

Because sustainable communities stem from the ideas of the residents in each location, this phase will naturally vary between countries.  However, where permitted by governmental housing policies, it may include the construction of definitive housing; such is the case in Chile, where UTPMP has coordinated efforts of technical organizations (architects, engineers), government, community, and legal areas of operation to construct definitive neighborhoods for 9,000 families by 2010.