The policies developed to face the critical housing problems in Chile by the last formally democratic administrations (Alesandri, 1958-1964; Frei, 1964-1970; Allende, 1970-1973), and their relative failures, constitute an important experience to be carefully considered by the underdeveloped world. First, it confirms the existence of the almost insuperable material as well as structural constraints inherent within a conventional treatment of the housing problem in societies of dependentmonopoly capitalism undergoing an intense period of urbanization. Second, the Chilean experience permits us to understand the complexity of social and political actions rooted in the unsatisfied demands for a plot of land or a house in metropolitan areas, with the upwelling of conflictive processes that may be beyond the usual mechanisms of governmental control.