ABSTRACT
Deficient urban access refers to the tendency in contemporary urban development to push the poor away from urban centers, concentrations of jobs, or well-serviced urban areas. The peripheralization of low-income housing is a worldwide phenomenon, and a confirmed cause of poverty. In Chile, the government has been highly effective in orienting the private sector towards the production of affordable neighborhoods through subsidies and liberalization of development regulations, but critics have highlighted an increase in urban segregation and its accompanying ills, as well as urban social expulsion. In other words, segregation of the poor creates areas that become the city's dumping grounds or back rooms, places in which activities that are harmful, unsightly or shameful can be located without generating major conflicts or affecting the status of the more respectable members of the urban society. Combating segregation is an important component of any effort to create a more equitable urban society.
