Land Rights and the Place of Social Housing in the City: The Experience of São Paulo, Brazil

In the 1980s, following the demands of social movements for urban reform in Brazilian cities, and within a context of a redemocratization of Brazilian Politics, a special land zoning law was implemented by a handful of municipalities as a strategy both to reserve vacant urban areas for social housing production and to urbanize precarious settlements. These areas were called Special Social Interest Zones (ZEIS, in Portuguese). In 2001, the Federal Government recognized this social zoning as an official tool to be used by municipalities in their Master Plans and Land Use Acts, and it has since been practiced nationwide.

With more than 890 thousand households living under subpar conditions, needing housing improvements or housing provision, the municipality of São Paulo started using  this tool in its social housing and urban development policies in 2002, including it in its Master Plan. After a decade, years of housing boom, the issue has been continually criticized by real estate developers, landlords and conservatives politicians, as well as used as a bargaining chip at the municipal Parliament. Meanwhile, it has become a rallying cry for social movements. Thus, the use of this tool has been subjected to a controversial debate around its effectiveness on adequate private or public social housing production.

Examining the city of São Paulo, this paper will discuss how this land policy tool has an impact on social housing policy today, discussing the role of the State, of private housing developers and of social movements. The importance of housing finance mechanisms will also be discussed, as well as the limits of this strategy as a way to assure a place for social housing in city limits, to avoid the gentrification of urban areas, and to assure the right to adequate social housing and to the city for millions of citizens.