Colonia (United States)

Type of slum in the United States, found near the border with Mexico

In the United States, a colonia is a type of unincorporated, low income, slum area located along the Mexico–United States border region that emerged with the advent of shanty towns. These colonias consist of peri urban subdivisions of substandard housing lacking in basic services such as potable water, electricity, paved roads, proper drainage, and waste management. Often situated in geographically inferior locations, such as former agricultural floodplains, colonias suffer from associated issues like flooding. Furthermore, urbanization practices have amplified the issues, such as when developers strip topsoil from the ground in order to subdivide land, the resulting plains become breeding grounds for mosquitoes and disease. Traditional homeownership financing methods are rare amongst colonias residents, and therefore these areas consist of ramshackle housing units built incrementally with found material on expanses of undeveloped land. Colonias have a predominant Latino population where 85 percent of those Latinos under the age of 18 are United States citizens. Where sewer systems do exist, there are no treatment plants in the area, and untreated wastewater is dumped into arroyos and creeks that flow into the Rio Grande or the Gulf of Mexico. These settlements are part of an informal sector or informal economy that is not bound by the structures of government regulations within labor, tax, health and safety, land use, environmental, civil rights, and immigration laws. In Spanglish, the English Spanish mix, colonia began to be used to refer primarily to Mexican neighborhoods about thirty years ago. A 1977 study uses the term colonia to describe rural desert settlements with inadequate infrastructure and unsafe housing stock. Since these Hispanic neighborhoods were less affluent, the word also connoted poverty and substandard housing. In the 1990s, colonias became a common American English name for the slums that developed on both sides of the Mexico–United States border. The history of the word colonias in the United States, and its interpretation through politics, suggests that places called colonias are not to be perceived as natural or prosperous communities. The term colonia is an essential symbol for public policy in the United States, and this Spanish name is a critical component for constructing public and policy attention,

Section 916 of the Cranston–Gonzalez National Affordable Housing Act (1990) (NAHA) defines colonias as any "identifiable community" determined by objective criteria that include the lack of potable water and adequate sewage systems, the lack of decent, safe, and sanitary housing, and which were in existence before the passage of the Act. These appeared as an informal housing solution for low income predominantly Hispanic wage earners through a model referred to by scholars as the "incremental approach". Due to the rise of the maquiladora industry—foreign owned factories in Mexico creating goods for export—the border population quickly grew and in 1965 created a housing shortage for these workers. The overlap of four variables attributed to the development of colonias: high demand from a population of low income wage earners meeting a low supply of affordable housing, a supply of low cost and fruitless land, the absence of regulations on the subdivision of that land, and a legal way for that land to be sold to individuals. Because these deals lacked a foreclosure period or buyer's protection, any property that was not paid in full could be repossessed and resold by the sellers, who retained title for the land and were allowed to keep all payments the buyer had made. and encouraged migration. People shifted from traditional agricultural labor to work in transportation, construction, and manufacturing. However, due to the lack of financial mobility, colonia residents face significant challenges escaping the colonia bubble. In June 1996, the Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs successfully obtained a waiver from the U. S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) to set new housing standards for colonias. The resulting standards provided a basis for safe and sanitary housing to alleviate the existing health risks. These standards are necessary for economic development in colonias because unsafe infrastructures and lack of education and jobs inhibit their growth. As of 2007, Texas had the largest concentration of colonia residents in the U. S., with approximately 400,000 living in over 2,000 colonias. New Mexico had the second largest, followed by Arizona and California. However, as remote location and stealthy development characterize many colonias, exact counts are difficult and figures can quickly change. Despite the high count of individuals living in these areas, the severity of the living standards in colonias has yet to become common knowledge for U. S. citizens. Scholars have found that little has been done to remedy the living standards of the colonians, as their situation has become normalized by the public and associated with the "lawlessness" of the Mexico–U. S. border region. While poor living standards do persist in these areas, a positive side does exist for colonias and is often disregarded by media and policymakers. For the border region's poor, colonias provide affordable housing and the opportunity to obtain the American Dream of owning a home.

Around the 1950s, developers began creating subdivisions along the Mexico–U. S. border on agriculturally poor properties, divided land in small parcels, and provided few services; the development of the properties, intended for low income buyers, was the beginning of the Texas colonias. By 1995, the state passed laws against developing subdivisions without services. From 1995 and 2011, the office of the Texas Attorney General had 87 judgments against developers who created properties without services. The office of the Texas Attorney General said that, by 2011, Texas had about 2,294 colonias and estimates that about 500,000 lived in the colonias. As of 2011 Hidalgo County has the largest number of colonias in Texas, though estimating their population is difficult due to isolation, shared addresses, rapid changes in development, and mistrust of government.

In New Mexico, about 150 colonias have qualified for colonia funding sources such as HUD, U. S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), etc. In New Mexico, there are two types of colonias: small towns and subdivisions. Although many of New Mexico's colonias consist of rural small towns, they were considered colonias because of the absence of resources. Conflicts with acceptable water, sewers, and safe and clean housing that the colonias faced brought on the requirement of Section 916 of the National Affordable Housing Act of 1992. In New Mexico, land was sold contract for deed; however, before 1990, New Mexicans were allowed to divide their property into four parcels without violating the law. Within a couple of years, landowners were then allowed to split their land into two parcels, but after some time, the subdivision law was amended to close this "loophole utilized by colonia developers".

Colonias can be found in each U. S. state on the Mexican border: Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, and California. Residents are mostly Hispanic and about 65% of the colonia population were born in the United States. Overall, colonias consist of low income communities with families that cannot afford goods in a formal economy. Colonia housing costs too much relative to the resident earnings and the living conditions are significantly worse.

Colonias may be lacking in all types of essential physical infrastructure and public services, such as clean water, sanitary sewage, and adequate roads. Houses are often built little by little, starting as shabby tents of wood and cardboard. By examining Mexican Americans residing in Hidalgo County, Texas, investigators found that Mexican Americans living in colonias share similar mental health patterns compared to the U. S. average but their physical health was worse. Mexican Americans living in colonia have considerable health risks due to unsafe living conditions, low educational attainment, high unemployment, comparatively high rates of communicable illness, lack of access to health care, and poverty. Therefore, poor people have less access to health care and more incidents of harmful lifestyles associated with drinking, smoking, and obesity.

In nutritional research, investigators assessed the experiences of child food insecurity and seasonal instability within Mexican origin mother child dyads living in Mexico–U. S. border colonias. By focusing on food insecurity, which is known to cause health effects across a lifespan, investigators sought to understand the effects of school based and summertime nutrition programs amongst women and their children, specifically within Texas border colonias. An important attribute of this research was that the study depended on a multi level analysis, which relied on repeated measurements. It also took into account the perceptions and experiences of children within the research. According to research, food insecurity among Hispanic and Mexican origin U. S. households exceeds national estimates (Nalty, 2013). Furthermore, in 2011, 26.2% of Hispanic families in the United States were food insecure, and 17.4% households with child food insecurity were Hispanic.

Education in the border region is substandard on both sides. While completion and attainment rates are much higher in the U. S. than in Mexico, they are far below the U. S. average. The low levels of education along the border region are due to lack of proper infrastructure, low property tax funding for schools, and pressing financial need which sees children contributing to family incomes. The primary problem with the education system in colonias is the lack of funding. In Texas, the Texas Education Agency determines education directives while the majority of school funding comes from local property taxes. For the low income colonias, these directives can present fiscal obstacles which stand in the way of the quality of education. Population growth among the colonias make it so the funding of education is controversial and socially divisive. There is also a problem in finding direct service providers who will educate the children in the colonias. School districts have taken measures to attract teachers to the prospect of working in these areas, though finding qualified teachers has become an increasingly difficult task.

Rather than being illegal, colonias are considered "extra legal", in that they circumnavigate the law rather than violating it. The progressive realization model requires continual progress in a relationship between law and society, which directly corresponds to the choices of those living in colonias. Other definitions are used by specific governmental agencies (e. g.: HUD, USDA, Environmental Protection Agency [EPA], and the Texas Code). Many scholars criticize the existing federal criteria as being too broad in that most definitions of colonias are based on the archetype that exists on the border in Texas. NAFTA sought to promote economic growth by lowering most of the existing barriers to trade. However, BECC/NADB does not explicitly address the colonias themselves but rather the Mexico–U. S. border, defining the border as areas in the U. S. "within 100 kilometers [62 miles] and the area in Mexico that is within 300 kilometers [190 miles] of the international boundary." BECC/NADB consists of a board comprising members from both the U. S. and Mexican governments, and thus lies equally within the jurisdiction of each nation's government; this includes the Administrator for EPA and the Secretaries of State and Treasury from the U. S., and the Secretaries for the Environment and Natural Resources, Treasury, and External Relations from Mexico, as well as one state representative and non governmental organization from each country. The BECC certifies projects that meet criteria in order to receive funding from the NADB. Projects can be proposed by anyone; in doing this, the BECC/NADB seek to promote public participation in sustainably developing the Mexico–U. S. border. Though the programs have been praised as revolutionary, critics have said progress is slow with NADB; it failed to fund a single infrastructure project within a year of its creation, despite the approval of several projects by BECC. The Act is considered one of the most important policies relating to U. S. colonias for setting aside funds from the Community Development Block Grant Program (CDBG) to go directly towards enhancing their living standards, and bringing to the public an awareness of colonias in California, Arizona, and New Mexico. The Act is credited for inspiring other agencies, such as the EPA, to fund programs targeting development on the Mexico–U. S. border. and the Colonias Development Council in New Mexico.