{"id":60460,"date":"2020-08-07T14:01:06","date_gmt":"2020-08-07T17:01:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rioonwatch.org\/?p=60460"},"modified":"2020-08-10T10:28:12","modified_gmt":"2020-08-10T13:28:12","slug":"how-the-pandemic-exposes-the-housing-crisis-in-brazil","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/?p=60460","title":{"rendered":"How the Pandemic Exposes the Housing Crisis in Brazil"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

This is our latest article on Covid-19 and its impacts on the favelas<\/a>. <\/i>For the original article published in Portuguese by Juliana Domingos de Lima published by Nexo, click here<\/a>.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

Repossessions were not suspended and residents of low-income neighborhoods are more vulnerable to Covid-19. The housing situation of the poorest that is highlighted by the health crisis calls for a multifaceted solution, according to a researcher.<\/h4>\n

Around 900 families were evicted<\/a> from a plot of land in Guaianases<\/a>, in the East Zone of the city of S\u00e3o Paulo<\/a>, in a repossession carried out by the Military Police on June 16. The judicial order arose based on a request from the landowner.<\/span><\/p>\n

According to S\u00e3o Paulo city officials, 4,000 subsidized housing units<\/a> linked to the <\/span>Minha Casa Minha Vida<\/span><\/a>\u00a0(My House, My Life) housing \u00a0program are planned for construction on the land and are pending release of funds from the federal government.<\/span><\/p>\n

On June 16<\/span>, when the repossession order was carried out, the city of S\u00e3o Paulo recorded more than 105,000 confirmed cases and 5,722 deaths<\/a> due to Covid-19. The city government said in a statement that a team of social workers visited the occupation in early June to offer shelter to the families, but none accepted. On the day of the repossession, families who were on the land said they had nowhere to go<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

200,755\u00a0<\/span><\/h1>\n

is the number of families registered on the housing waitlist of the city of S\u00e3o Paulo, according to the city government<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Evictions During the Pandemic<\/h3>\n

Since the beginning of the health crisis, organizations<\/a> and researchers<\/a> have been calling for a suspension in repossessions, evictions<\/a>, and forced removals to prevent further exposure to coronavirus<\/a>. Such suspension was even included in federal bills, but as yet has not been approved, largely because the bills have not advanced through the legislature.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The argument is that the housing conditions of the poorest segment of the population are already characterized by density and cohabitation, which places individuals with different degrees of vulnerability to the virus in a shared, reduced area where it is difficult to self-isolate. In this context, the removal of entire families expands the chain of contagion by the virus.<\/span><\/p>\n

S\u00e3o Paulo University (USP) School of Architecture and Urbanism professor Karina Leit\u00e3o told <\/span>Nexo<\/span><\/i> that \u201cthis is definitely not the time for repossessions.\u201d She pointed out that a suspension of these types of orders has become an important topic around the world<\/a> during the pandemic.<\/span><\/p>\n

According to data collected by the Evictions Observatory<\/a>, a project created by research labs at USP and the Federal University of ABC, over 1,900 families were affected<\/a> in at least ten evictions that took place across the state of S\u00e3o Paulo since March 2020, the start of the coronavirus pandemic.<\/span><\/p>\n

The irregular occupations are only one of the symptoms of the poorest population\u2019s demand for housing in Brazilian cities. The way in which the new coronavirus has spread in urban areas reveals inequalities<\/a>\u2014including inequality of access to adequate housing. Residents of tenements and favelas<\/a> as well as the homeless<\/a> and street population are among those most affected by Covid-19.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Impact of Covid-19 on Favelas<\/b><\/h3>\n

In Brazil, there are at least 5.1 million<\/a> homes in precarious conditions, according to data shared by the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE) in May.<\/span><\/p>\n

They are located in what IBGE classifies as “subnormal agglomerations<\/a>,” or favelas, areas characterized, according to the institute\u2019s definition, by irregular urbanistic standards, insufficient essential public services, and located in areas with occupation restrictions. 7.8% of Brazilian homes are found in these areas.<\/span><\/p>\n

The preliminary estimate of subnormal agglomerations was calculated to assist in the collection of data for the Demographic Census, which was postponed to 2021 due to the pandemic. This survey was released early in order to help in the fight against the virus.<\/span><\/p>\n

Also based on this mapping, nearly all Brazilian states with the highest rates of infection<\/a> from the new coronavirus also showed the highest percentages of precarious housing, as highlighted by an article<\/a> in the newspaper <\/span>O Estado de S\u00e3o Paulo<\/span><\/i>.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Precarious housing conditions are not limited to urban peripheries. In S\u00e3o Paulo, the poor areas of central neighborhoods that concentrate tenements, boarding houses, and vertical occupations have some of the highest Covid-19 death rates in the city, exceeding 80 for every 100,000 inhabitants, according to a report<\/a> by the channel Globo News<\/em> in late May.<\/span><\/p>\n

Past Disputes on the Topic<\/b><\/h3>\n

Even though housing congestion (the large number of units in an area) makes it difficult to self-isolate at home, professor Karina Leit\u00e3o claims that settlements such as favelas should not be perceived as propagators of the virus. According to her, when the impact of Covid-19 in these areas is discussed, the focus should be on poverty and precariousness.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe working classes’ way of life is not the cause of the problem,\u201d she said. \u201cOn the contrary, in an unequal system, it\u2019s the solution. Density is just one problem associated with precarious labor conditions and the lack of access to quality public services, such as health and transportation.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The professor calls attention to the history of health policies<\/a>\u00a0in Brazil, which she classifies as \u201ceviction and blame-based\u201d for the poor. They entailed the same inversion of logic into which we now risk falling: attributing the spread of diseases to the way the poorest live, and not to the multiple fragilities to which residents are subjected on account of poverty.<\/span><\/p>\n

The way of life of those who are unable to access the formal housing market in Brazil has been predominantly characterized by self-build\u2014the production of units by residents themselves. Leit\u00e3o explains that \u201cin the absence of a government solution, income, and access to an affordable housing market, this has been the predominant form of creating space in the country.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The Housing Problem Today<\/h3>\n

The high cost of land in the better located, infrastructure-rich areas in cities has made housing inaccessible to the poorest classes of Brazil.<\/span><\/p>\n

Throughout the 20<\/span>th<\/span> century and in the early 2000s, there was public investment in housing programs<\/a> generally geared toward the construction of large-scale buildings. The most recent of them\u2014the federal program Minha Casa Minha Vida\u2014has undergone budget cuts since the recession that began in 2014<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

USP School of Architecture and Urbanism professor Raquel Rolnik told UOL<\/em>\u2019s Ecoa<\/em> platform that, despite criticism of the program<\/a>, it has been, for years, the only housing policy in effect in the country. The absence of government-proposed alternatives, in conjunction with the economic crisis, has exacerbated the housing problem. According to Rolnik, the significant growth in the homeless population, as well as the over-occupation of self-built areas, such as favelas, are results of this.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

This exacerbation, however, will likely not be overcome by mass construction of new units alone.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe idea of a housing deficit glosses over the actual housing needs in the country,\u201d professor Karina Leit\u00e3o told <\/span>Nexo<\/span><\/i>. \u201cGuaranteeing the right to housing today in Brazil involves addressing a complex and multifaceted reality. It involves public policy that is permanent and respectful towards the efforts undertaken by residents to build their neighborhoods, their cities.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Leit\u00e3o explains that the numbers expressed by the deficit do not correspond to the number of housing units that need to be built to meet the population\u2019s demand.<\/span><\/p>\n

She bases this statement on the aforementioned mapping of subnormal agglomerations by IBGE\u2014in other words, it includes people who already live in favelas, in occupations, or who have to forgo a very significant portion of their income on rent.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

For these cases, policies that address these needs, such as reforms, infrastructure provision, and rent vouchers would be better solutions than the mass production of housing units, which, in turn, has historically resulted in low-quality housing.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n
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Support our efforts to provide strategic assistance to Rio\u2019s favelas during the Covid-19 pandemic, including\u00a0<\/b>RioOnWatch<\/i><\/b>\u2019s tireless, critical and cutting-edge hyperlocal journalism, online community organizing meetings, and direct support to favelas\u00a0by clicking here<\/a><\/b>.<\/b><\/h4>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Clique aqui para Portugu\u00eas This is our latest article on Covid-19 and its impacts on the favelas. For the original article published in Portuguese by Juliana Domingos de Lima published by Nexo, click here.\u00a0 Repossessions […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":208,"featured_media":60464,"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":[3071,1293,1854,1288,1271,1330],"tags":[3068,11,3175,107,282,157,406,3069],"writer":[3145],"translator":[338],"illustrator":[],"photographer":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-60460","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-coronaviruswatch","8":"category-evictionswatch","9":"category-housingwatch","10":"category-highlight","11":"category-favelaqualities","12":"category-translation","13":"tag-coronavirus","14":"tag-forced-evictions","15":"tag-guaianases","16":"tag-health","17":"tag-housing","18":"tag-minha-casa-minha-vida","19":"tag-sao-paulo","20":"tag-series-coronavirus-in-the-favelas","21":"writer-juliana-domingos-de-lima","22":"translator-carolyn-oliveira"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60460","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\/208"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=60460"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60460\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/60464"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=60460"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=60460"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=60460"},{"taxonomy":"writer","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fwriter&post=60460"},{"taxonomy":"translator","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftranslator&post=60460"},{"taxonomy":"illustrator","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fillustrator&post=60460"},{"taxonomy":"photographer","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fphotographer&post=60460"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}