In understanding the process of incremental housing, it is useful to look at how it occurs both as a historical phenomenon and within its specific context. Incremental housing in Chile for example, has been well documented, and shows an interesting growth pattern that parallels that of the country. In the 1950s incremental housing occurred informally and was a result of individual and/or small groups self-help initiative. In the early 1960s there was an unsuccessful government initiative to eradicating informal settlements. This quickly morphed into “site allocation” program, where families were given a small piece of land, in an attempt to control informal growth and manage them at an urban scale. In the early 1970s the socialist government of Salvador Allende took power only to be overthrown 1973 by the military coup of Augusto Pinochet. This political turmoil saw shift and instability that greatly impacted incremental housing initiatives in Chile, with informal settlements being regularly raided by the army. As the political situation stabilized itself, new government initiatives emerged to address housing shortage in the country. The end of the 70s saw an official settlement of land tenures for poor families which extended well into the 1980s.