Housing for low income families in São Paulo: an alternative in analysis

Abstract

The urbanization process in Brazil has caused 119 million people to live in the cities, creating the necessity of nearly 26 million new residences, from the middle of the last century on. In the metropolis, most of the houses (self-help constructed) arose clandestinely. Through BNH (Banco Nacional da Habitação), in the period of 1964-86 the government fostered the financing of 4 million units, a significant number, yet a small one, due to the dimension of the problem. After this, there was no new definition of a durable project, due to successive economical crises. The economical moment of high internal and external indebtedness does not make it possible to expect, in near future, auspicious perspectives of full resources, on the contrary. In this context, the present article draws up a profile of the self-help constructed house as well as of the self-help constructor, because it is based on the premise that, due to the shortage of resources, the alternative to make housing viable to the less favored ones, is the self-help construction, individual or collective. Considerations related to the first one, which involves a larger number of persons are taken into account, commenting on possible alternatives to be followed in relation to the application of resources and to the elaboration of projects involving users. At the end, a particular solution of housing for income families is emphasized, using dry-stack concrete blocks presenting several construction details. Also, the advantages of the new system are outlined.