Where is the right to the city in the "My House My Life" program? Consensus for a covert gentrification in Brazilian cities

The convergence of globalizing neoliberalism with redemocratization in Brazil in the 1990s brought important transformations to Brazilian cities. After two decades of recession and low urban investment in the country, the... [ view full abstract ]

The convergence of globalizing neoliberalism with redemocratization in Brazil in the 1990s brought important transformations to Brazilian cities. After two decades of recession and low urban investment in the country, the 2000s saw the revival of housing policies based on the City Statute (2001), a law that regulates the urban policy chapters of the new Federal Constitution (1989), as a result of a popular amendment to the rights to housing and to the city. The creation of the Ministry of Cities in 2003, with the election of a progressive government, established the conditions for new decentralized and participatory urban policies. In housing production, there was demand for both market and public housing production, resulting in an unprecedented real estate boom in the emerging economy of Brazil, a so-called BRICS country. Production is estimated at more than 8 million new units financed from 2002-2015. The upsurge in public housing production has corresponded with the creation of the 2009 “My House My Life” national program, aimed at income brackets of up to three minimum wages (R$1,530, or US$870/month). It was intended to stimulate the domestic economy by expanding civil construction and serving poorer households on a large scale at the time of the international 2008 subprime financial crisis. In just five years, the Program built over 3 million new units. Despite this large supply of subsidized public housing, several criticisms have been made, particularly the urban insertion of these new developments. By absorbing the organized housing movements, the program transferred families that had rented or occupied idle buildings in central urban areas to distant peripheries on a massive scale, areas devoid of urban equipment and access to the labor market. A consensus was established for a covert gentrification in Brazilian cities, the subject of analysis of the paper to be presented.