THE housing needs of the poor in particular are being discussed and debated at the current United Nations Habitat II Conference in Istanbul.
Few doubt that housing is a most basic need some argue against it being seen as a human right but most argument revolves around the issue of how best to provide it.
Because housing is such an important part of everyone's daily life, it is regularly an issue around which conflict and tension occurs. For the market, housing is just another commodity subject.
But for the poor, housing is much more than this. It is not only about the process of providing basic shelter, who is consulted and how appropriate the solutions are. Thus, in many respects, the debate on the provision of housing for the poor is a microcosm of the debate on what development itself is. Nowhere is this debate more acute than in one of Brazil's mega cities, Sac Paulo.
Sao Paulo is Brazil's largest city, with an estimated population of 17 million plus in the greater Sao Paulo area. For many, the city is a symbol of the new Brazil. Yet, according to research conducted by the Catholic University of Sao Paulo, it is also a city where approximately 9.9 million people live in areas where access to health, education, housing and income is very precarious.
It is estimated that between 1.5 and 2 million people alone live in the 2,500 favelas or slums. In all of them, the basic living conditions housing, water and sanitation do not reach even minimum standards.
The number of people living in such conditions continues to grow (by as much as 15 per cent between 1993 and 4994). And so, too, does their poverty. According to the newspaper Folha de Sao Paulo the number of families living in absolute poverty increased by 42 per cent between 1990 and 1994.
For decades, the poor of Sao Paulo have creatively housed themselves, to the best of their ability, in the favelas which have dotted the urban landscape. They have done this in circumstances where the state, at both municipal and federal levels, has largely ignored their needs. In addition, they have formed vibrant community based organisations.
Today these are engaged in a major conflict with the local municipality and its mayor as to the future of the favelas and the provision of housing.
Describing it as the "largest social programme in the country" and the "discovery of the century", the mayor is proposing to build what are known as Cingapura, high rise apartments, based on housing schemes from Singapore.
While the mayor hails this as innovative, it is described by the favela dwellers as little more than a publicity scheme which, in effect, will dehouse the poor. The objections of the faveladas revolve around a lumber of key issues
. to build the Ciagapura part of the favela is removed and temporary dwellings provided. Many fear that once they leave the relative security of the favela, they will not get an apartment.
. the number of apartments is usually far less than the number of families living in the favela. Only nuclear families with defined minimum incomes can participate. It is necessary for favela dwellers to have registered employment, and the majority do not.
. those who do obtain an apartment will have no guaranteed lease and the rent will increase on a scale which is still ill defined.
. when and if the Cingapum project is finished, it will have assisted just 42,000 people or less than 2 per cent of the favela population, and yet it is presented as the city's answer to the housing issue.
The single biggest objection is that the favela dwellers themselves have not been consulted about the city's plans and often read in local newspapers that their favela has been chosen for a Cingapua project. The Sao Paulo Favela Forum recently stated. "Contrary to what has been recommended for decades, and what experience teaches, the population was never properly heard, let alone informed about the municipality's plans. The result of this lack of dialogue is a frightened population but, at the same time enchanted with the possibility of really being able to live in buildings which are as attractive as the paid commercials constantly try to make them believe.
In opposition to the city's plans, the favelados support the concept of self help housing, or mutiroes. To date this has been far more successful through organisations such as the MDF (the movement for the defence of the favela dwellers). They argue that its model serves their real needs is cost effective from their perspective, preserves their sense of community and neighbourhood and directly involves them in its design and delivery. This latter aspect, they argue, is the key to successful housing provision for the poor.
The net result of this approach would be effective community participation efficient use of local resources and skills significant reductions in cost decentralisation and strengthening of democracy.
To date over 10,000 houses have been built under this scheme and the idea is being pursued in many other Brazilian cities. As a result, popular movements in Brazil came together to present to the Brazilian Congress a proposal to create a National Housing Fund and the setting up of a National Council on Housing.
This proposal was presented with the signatures of one million people. The proposal remains blocked and the Habitat II Conference will be the focus for lobbying to have it implemented.
