São Paulo Social Housing Rights Organisation Demands More
3,500 campaigners representing the Union Movement for Housing (União dos Movimentos por Moradia, UMM) have taken to the streets of São Paulo demanding that the government partakes in more visible action to alleviate the social housing deficit, estimated to the effect of 2 million units – not including the empty tenement blocks located in the centre of the city.
Speaking to national media, coordinator Maria da Graças Xavier stated the following: “we do not simply want a situation where people are at risk of losing the roofs over their heads as a result of renting – but to construct housing whereby terms are created to eventually provide them with something that is permanent and definitive.”
The UMM estimates that the housing deficit in São Paulo looks set to rise and, as a result of the intense urbanisation plans to be expected in the coming years, over 150,000 low income families will be removed. The campaigners are formally requesting open discussions with municipal, state and federal governments. An impending meeting with the São Paulo prefecture will call into question the expropriation of 53 centrally located buildings for the purpose of housing for low-income families (mandated at the beginning of the year).
