The topics of housing, transport and mobility are fundamental aspects that contribute to the organization of urban space. As regards housing, this chapter describes the types of housing production and distribution in Mexico City, linked to the programmes developed with state support, required by most of the population.

We begin with a summary of the evolution of the main housing programmes in Mexico, which provides a framework for the analysis of this issue in Mexico City and describes what has happened nationally and what positive policies can be identified locally. This chapter will also include informal settlements, which, according to researchers’ calculations, account for approximately half the dwellings built in the metropolis. Although informal settlements and the dwellings they consist of have been produced outside the scope of public policy, at several points in the development of these neighbourhoods, both local and federal government have intervened, particularly in the regularization of land tenure, through the provision of basic services (drinking water, sanitation, electrification, and waste collection) and housing improvement. In other words, governments have also been involved in informal settlements.

As regards mobility and transport, we will begin by presenting the evolution of the construction of the main communication routes through maps showing various cut-off points since the 1950s, and the way the layout of these roads is related to the evolution of key urban development activities at different times in the recent history of the city. This is followed by an analysis of the issues related to the various transport systems and how they have changed, and the way they have affected social groups. Commuting, explored at the end of this chapter, overlaps with the issue of the location of the main employment centres in the city, analysed in Chapter 2.

National and local housing programmes

Although Mexico has had housing programmes for limited sectors of the population since the early twentieth century, it was only in the 1960s that the first major social housing programme, the Housing Financing Programme, was developed.