Scant Belongings

by Mario Osava

courtesy of Homeless Peoples Network,

RIO DE JANEIRO, Nov 18 (IPS) - Groups leading the struggle for housing in Sao Paulo, Brazil's largest city, have begun to occupy abandoned buildings and set up living quarters in downtown streets to press the government to respond to their demands.

The tactic is similar to that which has brought results for the Movimento dos Sem Terra (MST - Landless Movement), which has garnered widespread support both at home and abroad for its fight for faster and broader agrarian reform, through well-organised occupations of land left idle by large landowners.

Around 30 buildings, most of which belong to the government and have stood empty for years, have been ''invaded'' by squatters in the past few months.

And when they are evicted on court order, some families set up living quarters with their scant belongings, in the street next to the building, in a glaring protest against the lack of affordable housing.

Some 2,000 homeless gathered outside the seat of the government of the state Wednesday, demanding that announced low- cost housing projects be implemented, and that their voices be heard when it comes to setting priorities for the state housing budget.

The housing problem in Sao Paulo, a city of 10 million, has been getting worse and worse. ''Every day there are more people living in the streets,'' said Maria Inés Volpato, legal adviser to the Housing Pastoral, a local Catholic organisation that has assisted the homeless for decades.

With the high unemployment rate, families cannot even afford to rent space in what are known locally as ''beehives'' - old houses packed with dozens of families living in ''terrible conditions, unimaginable for a human being,'' said Volpato.

The city Secretariat of Housing estimates that some 400,000 Sao Paulo families lack even minimally decent housing. But experts in the matter and grassroots movements put the number of people living in the city's ''favelas'' (shanty-towns) at around two million, with 600,000 crammed into ''beehives''.

Given that outlook, taking part in organised occupations of buildings, even if illegal, becomes an attractive alternative as a free of cost and sometimes lasting situation, said Volpato.

The occupations are headed by organised groups, like the Union of Movements for Housing (UMM), founded 12 years ago by residents of ''beehives.''

Recognised by local authorities as the informal mouthpiece of the homeless, the UMM launched an offensive on Oct 25, urging families to move into six buildings simultaneously.

Such actions are aimed at forcing the municipal or state government to seek solutions to the housing problem, whether by providing low-cost housing with long-term financing or land on which to build apartment buildings or small houses.

Once plots of land are obtained, the UMM organises joint projects, mobilising families to work together in solidarity to build their homes, in what is known locally as the ''mutirao''.

Besides building a sense of community, the shared projects pull down construction costs, thus maximising the scarce resources available for assistance to the poor, says the UMM, which adds that it builds each unit at a cost 35 percent below the price tag quoted by the city government.

But the group also fights for all of the rights to which citizens are entitled, such as sewerage services,
low-cost childcare, recreational spaces and, especially, schools.

Everyone has to study, in order to achieve effective political participation, said Donizeti de Oliveira, one of the group's three coordinators.

Official statistics put the housing shortage in Brazil at 5.4 million units nationwide.

The movement for affordable housing in Sao Paulo has become more radical lately, as new organisations, like the Movement of Homeless Workers, have cropped up.

The success of occupations staged early this year, when 277 families set themselves up as squatters in two buildings, allowed Hamilton de Souza, the leader of the group seen as sort of an ''urban MST,'' to conquer new followers.

An occupation, even if it does not successfully obtain housing for the families involved, is a political act that helps the movement grow, said De Souza.

The increasingly combative movement for housing is also attracting street vendors, who have been at the centre of violent demonstrations in recent years after being banned from doing business in certain neighbourhoods or streets.

We decided to react this way to the city government's repression of our activity,'' because if not allowed to work, people cannot pay their rent, said José Ricardo Teixeira, director of the Union of Informal Economy Workers, which claims 12,000 members.