Brazilian Popular Organizations and Associations in Housing Policy: From Social Movements to Social Policy Tools

This proposal is based on the results of a research on the Minha Casa Minha Vida Program - modality social organizations/ entities, started from the  Ministry  of Cities public call for study proposals on the policy.

The "My House My Life" Program has been presented as one of the major achievements of Lula and Dilma presidential administrations (3.4 million housing units have been contracted and 1.7 million have been delivered)- including  the 3 ranges/tracks of income and all production modalities.  The focus of this proposal is the "Entities"/ social organization modality of the Program, addressed to the poorest population level of urban dwellers - families earning up to R$1,600, or US$ 510- in monthly income. The production of this program modality is contracted not by construction companies, but by popular organizations and associations, which compose the universe of "entities" (social organizations) which are responsible for choosing families and for the whole production process - from researching the land  to project development and approvals, including execution of the civil construction. This modality  resulted an insignificant production of housing units, but a paradigmatic political dimension, supported by tradition of self-managing policies, involving the most representative housing movements in the country. Working with the difference between housing deficit and housing police demand of popular and social associations, this proposal search: 1. to highlight that,  with a small amount of funding and subsidies  obtained by negotiation with social movements, the Program came to win the support of  the historical housing movements for its beginning and operation; 2. to analyse the contradictory and conflicting dimensions that combine social movements for housing and business character of the Program My Home My Life in Brazil.