The analysis of the contemporary images of the Greek urban scenery highlights issues of social cohesion, associated with numerous changes in socioeconomic, cultural and demographic level. Especially the wider area of the urban conglomeration of Athens consists nowadays of several social teams which start from different cultural origins. To be more specific, the settlement of economic immigrants the past decade alters the existing balances, affecting several aspects of daily life. This kind of settlement is spatially oriented in urban areas with low rents, some of which are the urban settlements of the refugees of 1922. As years went by several constructions and urban regulations were made so as to host the refugee population. This kind of ‘residential islands’ within the urban scenery are related with damaged and abandoned refugee-blocks of flats, lack of social infrastructures and in general unbearable housing conditions. In most of the cases the inhabitants of these areas are economic immigrants, elderly people and families with low income. Taking into consideration the lack of social housing policy, this essay is an effort to remind a kind of neglected urban issue, which is not only related with social cohesion and housing conditions but also with issues of cultural heritage.