During more than fifty years of slum-related urban policies, governmental approach has changed from indifference to demolition and then from rehabilitation to spatial and social integration. The authorities have taken a long time to take into account problems concerning slums while drawing up plans for public management and metropolitan strategies. Until 1975, priority was given to urban expansion supporting economic growth. The aim was to create optimal conditions for long-term investments in the city. The illegally occupied lands were subjected to demolition to provide land for the city’s expansion. In the mid 1970s, the two cities initiated a dynamic process of deindustrialisation with the idea of developing the services sector. Henceforth, the central district would be the megacity’s financial lung. As the situation moved towards the saturation of land, illegally occupied lands acquired a strategic value which made the authorities realise their importance.43 The city’s slums, which had been neglected in favour of metropolitan development, were now recognised as an integral part of the urban space. Programmes were therefore initiated for their redevelopment and integration into the metropolitan landscape.