Public Standards in Housing in the Municipality of São Paulo, Brazil

São Paulo is the most populous city in Latin America and one of the largest cities in the world. The city has a Human Development Index of 0.80 as of 2010 and accounts for circa 10% of Brazil's GDP, which is one of the largest economies in the world. However, these figures do not reflect the housing needs and challenges faced by the city. A significant percentage of the population living in favelas resides in environmentally fragile areas. Approximately 392,000 households were located in favelas in 2021, according to the City Hall. Around 589,000 vacant households were identified in 2022, according to the Brazilian national census. The apparent dissonance between wealth and urban poverty, in the context of climate change, raises questions about the public spending and the production of policies from a multi-level perspective. The financial resources available for local housing policies come from various sources. Through Brazilian federalism, taxes collected at the national and state levels can finance local housing spending. Local governments can also generate revenue and fund local housing policies. Currently, the local financing of São Paulo's housing policies relies on two public funds: the Urban Development Fund and the Fund for Environmental Sanitation and Infrastructure. Revenue from the first fund mainly comes from the collection of financial counterparts linked to the right to build, stemming from the intense formal real estate activity in the city. The regulation of this financial counterpart dates back to 2002, but it has only recently shown effective results. The revenue from the second fund is based on a concession contract for environmental sanitation services in the city. The analysis of public spending and housing policy suggests that state actions are conditioned by how public revenue is generated, posing challenges to addressing the housing needs of the poorest.