Posts tagged housing rights
Evictions, Gentrification & Displacement: Three Short Docs on the Forces Shaping Rio Today [VIDEOS]
May 9th
Right now in Rio, favela residents across the city are being forced out of their homes and communities. Tens of thousands of families are having to leave their self-built homes, often of decades, due to direct state intervention where residents are told they are being removed for mega-event developments or because they are in “risk areas,” or due to the more subtle forces of real estate speculation and gentrification whereby residents can no longer afford to live in their own communities. Both types of eviction mean residents must move out to peripheral, underserved areas of the city, where land is cheaper, new favelas More >
“My House” in the Land of the Interest-free Car
Apr 29th
For the original article in Portuguese by Sérgio Magalhães* in O Globo, click here.
Troubled by the quality of construction of projects in the Minha Casa Minha Vida (MCMV, or My House My Life federal housing program), President Dilma Rousseff declared, “I wasn’t elected to give the people shoddy housing.”
The great demographic expansion and territorial occupation that characterize Brazil today date back to the middle of the last century. The cities bore the weight of the population growth and brought marked improvements in social indicators. In seventy years, the urban population has grown from 12 million to 170 million. And urban homes have More >
A History of Favela Upgrades Part III: Morar Carioca in Vision and Practice (2008 – Present)
Apr 2nd
This is Part 3 of a three-part series on the History of Favela Upgrades in Rio. Click for Part 1 and Part 2.
The cable car in Complexo de Alemão, opened in 2011, was funded through the federal Growth Acceleration Program (PAC).
In Rio, the end of the 2000s brought a trickle of funding to a few delayed upgrading projects from the Favela-Bairro program and its spinoffs, the Bairrinho and Grandes Favelas programs. During this time the federal Growth Acceleration Program (PAC) began to install public works in favelas as well. These tended to be attention-grabbing projects and those visible from the edges of communities such as the cable car in Complexo More >
Vila Autódromo Under Pressure from City to Accept Resettlement Housing
Mar 22nd
“We are here today because the Prefeitura (City government) is putting psychological pressure [on the residents of Vila Autódromo],” explained Lucia Cerqueira, a representative of the Catholic Church community organizing group Pastoral de Favelas in Jacarepaguá. The Pastoral and others from a network that includes public defenders, housing rights organizations and journalists, responded to an urgent request on Monday, March 4th to mobilize in light of the “battalion” of city employees who have been ceaselessly going door-to-door attempting to convince residents to sign up for the “Parque Carioca” resettlement housing currently under construction.
Vila Autódromo is a community with a long history of More >
‘Quilombo das Guerreiras’ Occupation Threatened by Trump Towers Development
Mar 16th
For original post by community journalist Léo Lima in Portuguese on Favela em Foco, click here.
Last Saturday afternoon, March 9th, people mobilized around the issues of housing and the Right to the City met for a symbolic “Hug the Quilombo das Guerreiras (Women Warriors’ Quilombo)” event at 49 Francisco Bicalho Street, Santo Cristo, in the Port region of Rio de Janeiro. Throughout the afternoon and evening, there were musical, photographic, and video presentations plus delicious soups prepared by residents and drinks and barbequed meat on sale to raise money.
Among the musical attractions of the day were DJ Castro, El Efecto, Repper Fiel, PH Lima, Banda More >
