“Allegados”: A Historical, Political and Comparative Description of the Doubled-up Households of the Global South

According to the Royal Spanish Academy (RAE), "allegado" means “close or near” in space or time, and in Argentina, Uruguay, Puerto Rico, and Chile, it refers to someone living temporarily in another’s house, often not a relative. In Chile, however, "allegados" has become a significant housing, social, and political issue, describing people or families who live informally with relatives or friends due to the lack of their own housing. This is linked to the housing crisis, elevated prices, social housing shortages, and difficulties in obtaining loans, exacerbated by recent waves of migration. “Allegados” often live in overcrowded conditions, impacting their quality of life, and is an indicator of extreme poverty.

The phenomenon arose in the 1980s during Chile’s Military Dictatorship, when land seizures were severely repressed, and the newly established ABC model for social housing (“Ahorro”, “Bono”, “Crédito”: savings, subsidy, mortgage) failed to address the growing deficit. While in other Latin American countries the poor were massively establishing in informal settlements, in Chile this was not possible. Hence, “allegados” is considered a primarily Chilean phenomenon, at least within the region. In addition, “allegados” in Chile became a central phenomenon and a political actor in the protests against the dictatorship. In the 1990s, “allegados” were instrumentalized and channeled into committees for accessing housing subsidies, although towards the 2000s they re-emerged as political actors in a new era of politicization.

This paper explores “allegados” in Chile through (1) its historical origins in the dictatorship, (2) the political role of housing actors in different periods, and (3) comparisons with other Latin American countries.