O resgate do centro de Porto Alegre : a luta dos sem-teto pelo direito à moradia

AUTOR(ES)
DATA DE PUBLICAÇÃO

2007

RESUMO

The present study analyzes the center of Porto Alegre, capital of Rio Grande do Sul State, claimed by the homeless of the states chapter of the National Fight for Housing Movement. As an expression of a national fight, the homeless claim their right to dignified housing and access to the city and urban environment by engaging in organized mass occupations of empty buildings in capital city centers. This fight challenges the Statute of the City, based on the principle of social justice and democratic access to urban space, and emphasizes the denial of the propertys social function. Expanding on the calculation of vacant dwellings derived from official statistics, we point out the vertical urban voids represented by a stock of entirely closed and unassigned buildings ruining the urban space. This stock is made up of private and government property, landmarks, the property of federal entities and divisions which, deprived of their value of use, have turned into the object of struggle in social movements. We present the story of the collective project named Utopia and Struggle, created with the occupation of an empty building belonging to the National Social Security Institute (INSS) in Porto Alegre, during the 5th Social World Forum (2005), whose proposal was submitted as a demand for the Program for the Reclamation of Central Urban Areas of the Secretariat for Urban Programs under the Ministry of Cities. The renovation of buildings for low-income homes is seen as a proposal to reclaim the city center: by renovating it to meet the demands of destitute people whose presence, more often than not, is not accepted and causes them to be chased off to increasingly distant city outskirts following the logic of expansion of the urban tissue and social and spatial segregation. Various limitations appear in this context hindering the proposed rescue. From the standpoint of a city as an object of dispute and Urban Reform, we have seen political advances that deserve to be highlighted, such as Provisional Measures nos. 292/6 and 335/7 which led to Law 11481 of May 31, 2007. This is a positive sign pointing to the disposal of public property to provide housing for the underprivileged. However, the adjustment of low-cost housing is set by the market, which restricts the utopia of the right to the city and the right to housing in the struggle for the right to inclusion in housing programs.

ASSUNTO(S)

centro de porto alegre the right to housing the right to the city the right to housing the right to the city low-cost housing reabilitação direito à cidade geografia sem-teto direito à moradia homeless habitação popular reclamation center of porto alegre

ACESSO AO ARTIGO

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