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Written evidence submitted by the Brazilian Embassy in London
Summary: This document makes a brief
presentation of the key programmes that
(i) Living Conditions Improvement Programmes, Agrarian Regularization and Urbanistic Development for Precarious Settlements which includes the following initiatives: Programme of Social Housing Subsidies; Residential Rental Programme; Associate and Individual Letter of Credit Programme and Social Housing Programme. Section 4 offers an outline of each of these programmes, the level of investment and data on population that has benefitted from these initiatives so far.
(ii) Programmes Aimed at Preventing Precarious Settlements, which includes the following initiatives: Programme of Urbanization; Property Ownership Regularization and Integration of Precarious Settlements; Deed Grant Programme and Pro-Housing Programme. Section 5 offers an outline of each of these programmes, the level of investment and data on population that has benefitted from these initiatives so far.
1. General background Between 2000 and 2005, the housing
deficit in
2. Estimates of the proportion of the population living in precarious settlements In order to calculate the
number of dwellers in existing precarious settlements in
3. The role of the Ministry for Cities[2] and PAC[3] Once the Ministry for
Cities was created in 2003, the federal investments in housing leaped from the level
of R$5.2 billion (£1.4 billion) in 2002 to R$15.2 billion (£4.1 billion) in 2007.
It is worth highlighting the fact that the Accelerated Growth Programme - 'PAC'
for short, included the urbanization of shanty towns as a priority initiative
for the growth of
4. Current Programmes The Federal Government has been tackling the challenges by developing strategic housing programmes within the framework of the Living Conditions Improvement Programmes, Agrarian Regularization and Urbanistic Development for Precarious Settlements. A brief outline of its programmes follows.
4.1 -Programme of Social Housing Subsidies - (Programa do Subsídio à Habitação de Interesse Social - PSH) This Programme complements the financial capacity of individuals with a monthly family income of up to three minimum salaries comprising finance operations or housing instalments, the difference between the capacity of the individual to pay and the necessary amount to purchase a property or (self) build a house.
2003-6: 175 thousand families benefitted from the programme. 2006: investments of R$444 million (£120 million) benefitting 44 thousand families.
4.2 - Residential Rental Programme (Programa de Arrendamento Residencial - PAR) This is an initiative of purchasing new build housing projects or refurbished housing, the units of which are aimed at providing families that have an income of up to R$1,800.00 (£486.50) as form of rental that also allows the tenants to purchase the property. From 2003 to 2006, 895 acquisitions of projects were made, which provided 150,903 housing units, of which approximately 100,000 have been let. 2006: investments of R$1.27 billion (£343 million) benefitting 40,250 families.
4.3 - Associate and Individual Letter of Credit Programme (Programa Carta de Crédito Associativo e Individual) This programme uses the resources of the Employee's Dismissal Fund (Fundo de Garantia do Tempo de Serviço) to finance the purchase of housing units or urban lots of land as well to fund construction of housing units, completion of building work, extensions, refurbishment and improvement of housing units and purchase of building materials. This programme offers discounts to low income families by paying for the costs of the credit operation and part of the sale value or the cost of building the dwelling.
2003-6: 1.1 million families benefitted from this programme 2006: investments of R$5.47 billion (£1.47 billion) benefitting 360 thousand families.
4.4 - Social Housing Programme (Programa de Habitação de Interesse Social) Social Housing aims at providing access to adequate housing to segments of the population that have a monthly family income of up to three minimum salaries both in urban and rural locations. It has been structured in a manner that facilitates access to decent, regular housing with all public services for the low income population.
2003-6: over 46 thousand families obtained funds to build or buy housing units. 2006: investments of R$108 million (£29.2 million) benefitting 6.4 thousand families.
5. Programmes Aimed at Preventing Precarious Settlements
5.1 - Programme of Urbanization, Property Ownership Regularization and Integration of Precarious Settlements (Programa Urbanização, Regularização Fundiária e Integração de Assentamentos Precários) This Programme aims at improving housing conditions in precarious settlements and reducing risks by urbanizing them, regularizing the property ownership and integrating these settlements into the urban fabric of the town or city. Its initiatives include total urbanization of the precarious settlements combining a broad spectrum of urban and social actions aimed at transforming the areas in order to achieve decent living conditions.
2003-6: over 100 thousand families obtained funding to improve their houses.
Urbanization of precarious
settlements were awarded projected investments from the Federal Government with
the launch of the operation of the National Social Housing Fund 'FNHIS' (Fundo
Nacional de Habitação de Interesse Social) and the inclusion of the
urbanization initiative in the Accelerated Growth Programme -
2006: the National Social Housing Fund -'FNHIS' R$1billion (£270 million) contracts.
5.2- Deed Grant Programme (Programa Papel Passado). The objective of this
programme is to support the states, municipalities and the
5.3 - Pro-Housing Programme (Pró-Moradia) "Pró-Moradia"uses funds of Employee's Dismissal Fund (Fundo de Garantia do Tempo de Serviço), of the states, municipalities, Federal District or their direct or indirect administrative bodies, aiming at offering access to adequate housing to the population, whose main monthly family income is up to R$1,050.00 (£284.00). The Pro-Housing Programme is subdivided into three modules:
§ Urbanization and Regularization of the Settlements § Housing § Institutional Development.
As from 2007, one billion Reais (£270 million) is allocated for this programme on a yearly basis until 2010.
[1] The current minimum salary in [2] The strategic creation of the Ministry for the Cities on 1st
January 2003 aimed at combating social inequality and transforming the cities
into more humanized spaces by providing better access to housing, basic
sanitation, essential services and transportation. This became a priority as
there has a great change in population distribution over the last century in [3] PAC - Programa de Aceleração de Crescimento - Acceleration Growth Programme, a federal
government initiative, launched in January 2007, which comprises a four-year
set of economic policies aimed at accelerating the economic growth of PAC website (in Portuguese): http://www.brasil.gov.br/pac/ |