{"id":29578,"date":"2016-06-12T10:19:46","date_gmt":"2016-06-12T13:19:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.rioonwatch.org\/?p=29578"},"modified":"2016-07-04T04:00:58","modified_gmt":"2016-07-04T07:00:58","slug":"after-half-a-decade-favela-da-skol-residents-still-without-housing-as-social-rent-runs-out","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/?p=29578","title":{"rendered":"In Alem\u00e3o, Favela da Skol Residents Still Without Housing as Social Rent Runs Out"},"content":{"rendered":"

Clique aqui para Portugu\u00eas<\/em><\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Almost exactly one year after the Favela da Skol<\/a> in Complexo de Alem\u00e3o<\/a> voiced their concerns to Rio de Janeiro\u2019s public defenders and state government<\/a> about their precarious situation following evictions<\/a>, the community is rallying again to bring attention to their situation after state government budget crises have left dwindling funds for the social rent<\/a>\u00a0residents were receiving.<\/p>\n

The Skol community is so named for the factory that the residents once inhabited in\u00a0Complexo de Alem\u00e3o in the North Zone<\/a> of Rio. The site of the Favela do Skol has been empty since the last residents left in September 2010 following evictions and pressure after the area was designated an “area of risk.”<\/a>\u00a0They were originally promised housing in Minha Casa Minha Vida<\/a>\u00a0public housing apartment blocks, which were still unavailable to them one year ago in June 2015 when the community gathered together to raise awareness for their situation<\/a> while calling on the government to fulfill their promises.<\/p>\n

At that time, residents were receiving social rent, which was meant to expire after a one year deadline for relocation. However, residents say that today the situation is becoming\u00a0urgent because of funds drying up that echo larger trends as Rio’s state government goes through a financial crisis.<\/p>\n

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

\u201cThe situation in this moment is desperate. We are without social rent and the chances of remaining homeless are only increasing,\u201d said Camila Santos, an active member in the fight for housing through the Coletivo Papo Reto<\/a>\u00a0media collective within Complexo de Alem\u00e3o.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe biggest challenge we have is that we are in the hands of the government, and they have\u00a0failed. They have told us that the social rent has not been suspended. However, there isn\u2019t money to make the payments or to start the projects for housing. The rent wasn\u2019t suspended, only that there isn\u2019t money.”<\/p>\n

As of now, there are 523 families being affected by this situation. They have been working hard organizing to raise awareness and ensure the\u00a0government acts\u00a0on its promises. On Friday June 3 residents\u00a0demonstrated in front of the Guanabara Palace where Rio\u2019s governor sits and were able to meet with the State Development\u00a0Secretary Murilo Leal. Leal\u2019s response did not satisfy residents, when\u00a0he vaguely said he would look into finding other ways to help them\u00a0As of now, the community is awaiting a response.<\/p>\n

Residents stress they did not choose to live in an area of risk, but were born into it. They expressed shame and anger at the unkept promises by the government.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is a shame that the Olympic city has invested so much in projects for the \u2018gringos\u2019<\/a>\u00a0to see, but don\u2019t fulfill their promises to 12,000 people living with social rent,\u201d remarked Santos.<\/p>\n

On Sunday June 12 residents called out via community media platforms for those affected to rally and create a video documentary to voice their struggle. Around 60-80 people attended this event to discuss possible actions that residents could take. From videos posted on the\u00a0Coletivo Papo Reto Facebook page<\/a>, it is possible to see police cars passing by the organizers, which residents in the video said happened at least twice and believe may have been an attempt to intimidate them.<\/p>\n

The residents, who have been waiting five years for apartments promised by current Governor Luiz Pez\u00e3o<\/a>, are now left wondering what will happen to them without social rent, which was never supposed to be a long-term solution to begin with.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Clique aqui para Portugu\u00eas Almost exactly one year after the Favela da Skol in Complexo de Alem\u00e3o voiced their concerns to Rio de Janeiro\u2019s public defenders and state government about their precarious situation following evictions, […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":29595,"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":[1294,1293,1854,336,1329],"tags":[756,32,1652,1343,282,26,157,37,5,1292,152,888,210,135],"writer":[1732],"translator":[],"illustrator":[],"photographer":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-29578","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-communitymedia","8":"category-evictionswatch","9":"category-housingwatch","10":"category-violations","11":"category-by-international-observers","12":"tag-community-organizing","13":"tag-complexo-do-alemao","14":"tag-favela-da-skol","15":"tag-governor-pezao","16":"tag-housing","17":"tag-housing-rights","18":"tag-minha-casa-minha-vida","19":"tag-north-zone","20":"tag-olympics","21":"tag-organizing","22":"tag-participation","23":"tag-police-intimidation","24":"tag-public-housing","25":"tag-social-rent","26":"writer-david-robertson"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29578","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\/84"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=29578"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29578\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/29595"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=29578"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=29578"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=29578"},{"taxonomy":"writer","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fwriter&post=29578"},{"taxonomy":"translator","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftranslator&post=29578"},{"taxonomy":"illustrator","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fillustrator&post=29578"},{"taxonomy":"photographer","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fphotographer&post=29578"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}