Like many cities in Mexico, León—about 230 miles northwest of the nation’s capital—experienced aggressive, sprawling growth along its outer fringes in this century’s first decade. Much of it was fueled by a federal program, launched in 2001, to elevate living conditions for millions by creating pathways to affordable home ownership through government-backed mortgages and private development. But that initiative—tainted by corruption and investor greed—spawned endless tracts of cheaply built, nearly identical houses in Mexico’s remote urban outskirts, many disconnected from transportation, basic utilities or services, and other infrastructure. Some of those projects now lie decaying or abandoned.