{"id":23211,"date":"2015-07-20T10:00:33","date_gmt":"2015-07-20T13:00:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.rioonwatch.org\/?p=23211"},"modified":"2015-07-20T11:46:36","modified_gmt":"2015-07-20T14:46:36","slug":"my-house-my-life-is-here-residents-of-fishing-community-praia-do-sossego-niteroi-resist-eviction","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/?p=23211","title":{"rendered":"\u201cMy House, My Life, Is Here.” Residents of Fishing Community Praia do Sossego, Niter\u00f3i Resist Eviction"},"content":{"rendered":"

Twelve residents\u2014all composing a single\u00a0extended family of subsistence fishermen\u2014occupy three small houses in Praia do Sossego. The beach lies along the coast of Niter\u00f3i<\/a>, the\u00a0city just across the Guanabara Bay to the east of Rio de Janeiro, in the greater metropolitan region<\/a>. On July 2, the families received an eviction<\/a> notice issued by Judge William Douglas of the 4th<\/sup> Federal Circuit mandating they vacate their houses and be relocated to Minha Casa Minha Vida<\/a>\u00a0(MCMV, or ‘My House My Life’ federal housing program). As the clock struck midnight on July 15, residents of Praia do Sossego prepared to face the culmination of a threatening eviction\u00a0process dating back to 1995.<\/p>\n

Federal authorities are attempting to reclaim the beach and remove the families on environmental grounds, despite federal legislation<\/a> that protects traditional coastal communities\u2019 right to residence. The families suspect other forces are at play\u2014namely, real estate speculation<\/a> and the perception that their presence socially and visually contaminates the natural area\u2014underneath the fa\u00e7ade of an environmental preservation<\/a> agenda.<\/p>\n

The community has been supported\u00a0by a mobilization<\/a> composed of activists from numerous\u00a0organizations and institutions in the metropolitan region. As a result, perhaps, federal authorities have not attempted\u00a0to carry out the eviction that was expected to begin on July 15. Intervening\u00a0on the family’s behalf, State\u00a0Deputy Flavio Serafini negotiated a deal<\/a>\u00a0with the City of\u00a0Niter\u00f3i\u00a0on the afternoon of July 15 which would permit the families to relocate to the upper area of the beach. However the agreement is still pending\u00a0approval from federal courts.<\/p>\n

Cl\u00e1udio, 45, whose uncles were the first residents of the community, moved to Praia do Sossego when he was seven years old.\u00a0With ties to the land dating back nearly forty years, Cl\u00e1udio states: \u201cWe\u2019re already at the third generation here with my daughter [Julia, 4].\u201d Cl\u00e1udio\u2019s wife Ros\u00e2ngela, 40, explains: \u201cIt\u2019s difficult, sad, because it\u2019s been 15 years that I\u2019ve lived here. Everything that I know about\u00a0fishing… I learned here with my husband. I stopped studying when I was 15 years old to help my mother, working in families\u2019 houses.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Rosangela<\/a><\/p>\n

Indicating the elevated area prior to the path leading to the beach, Cl\u00e1udio reminisces: \u201cHere there was a flour oven\u2014my father produced flour here.\u201d Though his father was a farmer, growing up in Sossego, Cl\u00e1udio learned to fish at a young age\u2014a skill that eventually developed into his livelihood.<\/p>\n

While Cl\u00e1udio and his family have maintained a traditional lifestyle with deep ties to the sea, the socio-spatial climate of the surrounding area has dramatically changed since his\u00a0youth: \u201cIt didn\u2019t used to be valued\u00a0like this: these houses [neighboring mansions] weren\u2019t there\u2026 These houses are new, they\u2019re around 20 years old.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ros\u00e2ngela suggests the real reason for the impending evictions is real state speculation. She said: \u201cThe [argument]\u00a0of being an Environmental Protection Area<\/a> (APA)\u00a0is the fa\u00e7ade of a big real estate speculation<\/a>. We have knowledge, not proof, but knowledge that there\u2019s a plan\u2014a ready market\u2014for a resort, guesthouse\u2026 something like that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cl\u00e1udio feels that those behind the eviction effort have propagated false information about their family: \u201cWe\u2019re gaining nothing, and people go on saying things. [They say] that I have three restaurants\u2026 that I charge people to go down to the beach\u2026 Several\u00a0things people say are lies. The street is public. A person has the right to come here. There\u2019s no gate, no sign\u00a0saying anything\u2014nothing like that. It\u2019s a piece of the city, the other [piece] is ours. They\u2019re robbing [us], truly. The judge with this sentence is helping the City rob us again. And because of this, I\u2019m going to resist until the end, I\u2019m going to resist indeed. My whole life is buried in the ground here. My father died over there, my mother died over there, and I too am going to die here, even if they have to kill me\u2014I\u2019m only leaving here dead.\u201d<\/p>\n

Disputed Rights to the Land<\/h3>\n

The status of property and occupancy\u00a0rights in Praia do Sossego represents a conflict between legal guarantees to land for traditional communities, private development interests, federal coastal property, and municipal environmental protection laws.<\/p>\n

In 1991, Praia do Sossego was provisionally declared an\u00a0Environmental Protection Area, and was officially monumentalized as an Area of Special Environmental Interest<\/a> by municipal law in 1995. Cl\u00e1udio tells the story: \u201cAfter \u201995 and onward was when it became valorized. So, it started to implicate us\u2014wanting to remove us\u2014as it\u2019s an Environmental Protection Area. But they\u2019re mistaken,\u201d elaborates Cl\u00e1udio, \u201cWe already lived on the site. When we arrived, it wasn\u2019t an Environmental Protection Area.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ros\u00e2ngela explains: \u201cWe don\u2019t have any ownership document. We have a document of the terrain. It\u2019s not a legal deed; it\u2019s a certificate, because they allege that it\u2019s an Environmental Protection Area. They always used this argument, the same cause for eviction.\u201d Despite not having a legal land deed, Cl\u00e1udio cites Decree 6.040: Policy for the Sustainable Development of Traditional Peoples and Communities<\/a>: \u201cThere\u2019s a federal law\u2014that is of cai\u00e7ara<\/em>, subsistence fishing\u2014that protects us. But that\u2019s not being used. You live by fishing, you have the right to live where you live. It protects us, but where is it? Every day that passes they\u2019re taking us, native fishermen, from where we live to build\u00a0resorts, hotels\u2026 and they don\u2019t want to give any [working] conditions to\u00a0the fisherman.\u201d<\/p>\n

Implemented in 2007 by President In\u00e1cio ‘Lula’ da Silva, traditional peoples and communities\u2014including subsistence fishing communities like Praia do Sossego\u2014are legally guaranteed a right to occupy space by\u00a0decree. The law\u00a0defines traditional peoples and communities are those \u201cgroups culturally differentiated\u2026 that posses their own forms of social organization, that occupy and use territories and natural resources as a condition for cultural, social, religious, ancestral and economic production, using knowledge, innovations and practices generated by tradition.\u201d The decree continues to define \u201ctraditional territories\u201d as \u201cthe necessary spaces for cultural, social and economic production of the traditional peoples and communities, being used in\u00a0permanent or temporary terms\u201d in respect to the rights of traditional, indigenous, and quilombo<\/a>\u00a0communities according to constitutional guarantees.<\/p>\n

Cl\u00e1udio explains that according to a topographical analysis of the area, \u201c42% is naval area, 44% is Environmental Protection Area, and 14% is our terrain\u2026 Our land up above is not public domain. And they want to take all of it.\u201d Ros\u00e2ngela elaborates: \u201cThis topography alleges that the house up above [housing seven people, Cl\u00e1udio\u2019s nephews\u00a0and their families] is not <\/em>located in the area in question\u2026 [What is included] is the deck of that house up to here [the houses below]. From the deck and behind it\u2019s the terrain.. It\u2019s not in the area of litigation.\u201d<\/p>\n

For this reason, the residents find it unreasonable that the federal court insists on relocating their families to public housing since part of the private terrain falls outside the area in litigation. The compromise favorable to the families, supported by State Deputy Fl\u00e1vio Serafini, would permit the families to relocate to the upper area. While this agreement was approved by the City, being a coastal region, Praia do Sossego falls under federal jurisdiction and must be approved by a federal judge.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt least having to leave from here below, we could stay to continue our lives here,\u201d says Ros\u00e2ngela. \u201cThe lives of these boys is here; it\u2019s fishing, it\u2019s the beach. Beyond the matter of the beach, it\u2019s their work. There are some people who say we don\u2019t want to leave this ‘seafront life’ as if it were a whim\u00a0for us. It\u2019s obvious that the place is pretty, this tranquility, who wouldn\u2019t want a place like this? But that\u2019s not it, because the boys grew up here, they learned to fish\u2026 What will they do somewhere else, principally where they want to send us? That is, Minha Casa Minha Vida.\u201d<\/p>\n

The public housing project where the City intends to relocate the families is located in Po\u00e7o do Sap\u00ea<\/a>, over ten kilometers from Praia do Sossego. Ros\u00e2ngela continues: \u201cIt\u2019s right here in Niter\u00f3i, just that it\u2019s a long way to go out fishing… [Here,] you wake up and go to the beach, just put on clothes and go diving to make ends meet. And [they] want to take us from here, put us somewhere far\u2026 There\u2019s no way.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ten Years of Fighting Eviction<\/h3>\n

While the legal process began in 1991 with the provisional environmental protection statute, the first eviction notice came in 2004. \u201cIn 2004, we gained the right to remain but without an ownership document,” says Ros\u00e2ngela. “So it ended, and nobody said anything anymore\u2026 until 2011.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIn 2011, another paper arrived, for repossession\u00a0of the land once again\u2014opening everything up again. \u2018Environmental Protection\u00a0Area, marina area\u2026\u2019 They brought [the court notice], spoke with us and we pressured them, \u2018Where are we going?\u2019 \u2018Ah, you don\u2019t have somewhere to go?\u2019 Up to that point, they wanted to remove us without giving us the right to anything… After some time, still in 2011, [the justice official] came and brought a paper with a deadline of 30 days…. A sense of despair struck, we\u2026 remove[d] our things from here, we\u2026 rent[ed] a room up there above to be able to stay, with the fear that all of the sudden they would arrive with everything to remove our things.\u201d<\/p>\n

Then, a social worker from the City \u201ccame looking for us. It was a conversation like this, even ‘horizontal’ because she simply asked me: ‘Do you have somewhere to go? Do you have somewhere to store your things?’ Because when they come to comply with the order, if you don\u2019t have somewhere to keep your things, your stuff will go to a deposit of the City, and you\u2019ll have difficulty to get your things back afterwards.\u2019 I was terrified, I said: \u2018People, how can something like this happen?\u2019 We remained with that concern. She came, cast all of this terror. Then after that, it calmed down. We returned home\u2026 The thirty days passed, and they didn\u2019t come back anymore.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIn December 2014, another court summons came with [a deadline of] one week\u2026 So, that was when everything started all over again…We [tried] to see if at least we could get some lawyer to help\u2014at least to accompany us, to not go alone. But we weren\u2019t able to because it was coming up very soon\u2026 So, [Claudio] said, \u2018I\u2019m going to defend us myself.\u2019 We started to talk, separating the documents that we had\u2014which were the certificates of the terrain, the topography, and a property tax record that one of our friends found online, paid some time ago.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen Claudio had the chance to speak, he presented the documents\u2014which until then, the judge was unaware of because the documents weren\u2019t there at the [previous] proceedings. [The judge] said it would take 45 more days to review all of the paperwork and decide. So these 45 days passed and nothing.\u201d<\/p>\n

In May, the decision finally arrived: \u201c\u2018You\u2019ll have to leave, the houses will be demolished.\u2019\u201d Another summons arrived on July 2: the families were given five days to register for Minha Casa Minha Vida public housing<\/a>. The justice official told the family that \u201cnot having registered won\u2019t impede the order\u201d from being carried out. Ultimately, they did sign up out of fear that if they didn’t register, they would \u201chave to leave without public housing, with nowhere to go.\u201d The family went to the 4th<\/sup> Federal Circuit Court to confirm\u00a0the registration as instructed, then checked to see when the apartment would be ready.\u00a0The social worker said she would update the family on July 13, but they haven’t received any news.\u00a0\u201cSo, that\u2019s where we are now, waiting,” Ros\u00e2ngela states.<\/p>\n

When the eviction notice arrived back in May, the family was given two months to comply with the order and vacate the houses. \u201cThis ultimate deadline ends today,\u201d says Ros\u00e2ngela. According to the notice, \u201c[City officials] would be here as of July 15. In my head, this morning they would have already been here with everything. I was preparing myself psychologically to face all of it this morning.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Anti-Eviction<\/a><\/p>\n

With the support\u00a0of the ongoing mobilization<\/a>\u00a0pressuring public officials, the eviction order has not been\u00a0carried out thus far.<\/p>\n

While the community has overcome these numerous obstacles in the past, they fear that this time, the stakes are higher. Having been hopeful that the land certificates, topographical map, and property tax receipt would impact the judge\u2019s decision, Ros\u00e2ngela and Cl\u00e1udio were outraged that the judge completely disregarded the documents.<\/p>\n

One clause of the eviction order, issued by the federal judge, instructed the family to indicate their \u201careas of interest for municipal assistance in their reinsertion\u00a0into the job market.\u201d Cl\u00e1udio rebuts: \u201cBut I\u2019m already working. I\u2019m not unemployed!\u201d Pointing towards the ocean, he continues: \u201cMy work is over there. How\u2019s he going to reinsert me into the job market, if I\u2019m already working?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cMy House, My Life is Here\u201d<\/h3>\n

\"Beach<\/a><\/p>\n

The family feels an\u00a0unwavering\u00a0connection to their home, Praia do Sossego. Ros\u00e2ngela describes that it\u2019s difficult to see Cl\u00e1udio\u2014\u201cwho at times seems sort of tough\u201d\u2014threatened with the loss of his home. \u201cHis life is here. Julia is growing up, she\u2019s going to be 5 years old, and she too is very attached to this place\u2026 On days that she doesn\u2019t go to the beach and doesn\u2019t swim, she gets sad, impatient: \u2018I want to go to the ocean, I want to go to the ocean.\u2019… It\u2019s painful\u2026 We\u2019re all very sad.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cl\u00e1udio echoes the somber sentiment: \u201cI\u2019ve never been hungry, but I\u2019ve been through difficulties. I\u2019ve caught many fish\u2014I’ve sold\u00a0half the\u00a0fish in order to buy oil to fry the other half. These days, I\u2019m rich because I open my fridge and I find things to eat, thank God. But my life was a struggle\u2014and to this day it is a little bit\u2014but today I sustain myself\u2026 And if someone takes me away from here, takes me who knows where, my life won\u2019t be easy. We will try to overcome, we\u2019ll try, but it\u2019s going to be very difficult.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cl\u00e1udio continues: \u201cIt\u2019s going to affect the life of everyone. [The judge] says he\u2019s going to give me \u201cMy House My\u00a0Life.\u201d But my house, my life, is here.\u201d<\/p>\n

Click here<\/a>\u00a0to <\/em>show your support\u00a0to\u00a0the families to remain in upper Praia de Sossego.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Twelve residents\u2014all composing a single\u00a0extended family of subsistence fishermen\u2014occupy three small houses in Praia do Sossego. The beach lies along the coast of Niter\u00f3i, the\u00a0city just across the Guanabara Bay to the east of Rio […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":78,"featured_media":23220,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1293,1267,1288,1333,1503,335,452,336,1329],"tags":[1050,1718,1395,267,11,1197,282,26,354,869,632,157,551,1292,1719,10,471,731],"writer":[1695],"translator":[],"illustrator":[],"photographer":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-23211","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-evictionswatch","8":"category-gentrificationwatch","9":"category-highlight","10":"category-event-reports","11":"category-opportunities-to-support-favelas","12":"category-policies","13":"category-rio20","14":"category-violations","15":"category-by-international-observers","16":"tag-beach","17":"tag-coast","18":"tag-environmental-protection-area-apa","19":"tag-fishing-colony","20":"tag-forced-evictions","21":"tag-greater-rio","22":"tag-housing","23":"tag-housing-rights","24":"tag-law","25":"tag-lives-cannot-be-replaced-in-public-housing","26":"tag-meu-rio","27":"tag-minha-casa-minha-vida","28":"tag-niteroi","29":"tag-organizing","30":"tag-praia-do-sossego","31":"tag-real-estate-speculation","32":"tag-sustainability","33":"tag-traditional-peoples","34":"writer-ava-rose-hoffman"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23211","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/78"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=23211"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23211\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/23220"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=23211"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=23211"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=23211"},{"taxonomy":"writer","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fwriter&post=23211"},{"taxonomy":"translator","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftranslator&post=23211"},{"taxonomy":"illustrator","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fillustrator&post=23211"},{"taxonomy":"photographer","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fphotographer&post=23211"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}