Young Land Occupations and the Failure of Housing Policy in Brazil

How suitable are federal housing policies and slum upgrading programs for those living in young land occupations? Scholars rarely ask this question because research and policy target well-established settlements that have acquired tenure security. In contrast, young land occupations are highly vulnerable, emergent settlements threatened with eviction and are not sufficiently visible to attract government and scholarly attention. Through a multiyear collaboration with activists, social movements, nonprofits, and residents of young land occupations in Sao Paulo, Brazil, this participatory action research elucidates who occupies these locations and why, where they come from, and the housing struggles they face. A survey administered to 906 households depicts land occupiers as uniformly very poor and vulnerable, unlike the low- to modest-income dwellers of consolidated informal settlements. An assessment of existing social housing programs emphasizes the need to develop housing assistance and upgrading programs specifically targeting the socioeconomic conditions of land occupiers, thus proactively supporting them.