The Phenomenon of Homelessness in Brazil: Advances of Legal Frameworks and the Right to Social Protection through Adequate Housing

The population of homelessness has steadily increased in the city of São Paulo and other cities in the country according to the specific surveys and censuses. Parallel to this, in recent years the policy of social assistance has improved in the care of this population, considering recent regulatory frameworks at national level in conjunction with states and municipalities. Although there is the strengthening of the System Unified of Social Assistance (Sistema Único de Assistência Social) which seeks to guarantee the right to social protection of these people. We start from the hypothesis that there is still significant limitations in this assistance, in particular as regarding the issue of intersectoriality and the issue of adequate housing. The aim of this paper is to present the results of a recent analysis of a special shelter service (named República) in Sao Paulo which is a type of essential care, but it is not widespread by the government even providing a set of fundamental attributes for the out of the streets process.