SAO PAULO (AP) – Jussara de Jesús never thought that her family would live in a shack.
But work as a hairdresser dried up after the new coronavirus hit the Brazilian metropolis of Sao Paulo. She couldn’t pay $ 150 a month in rent for the small house where she and her three children lived. Three months ago, they were evicted.
They moved to Jardim Julieta, one of the newest favelas or neighborhoods in Brazil. With over 800 sheets of wood and plastic sheeting, there are already several thousand people living in what used to be a truck park in one of the poorest parts of the city.
“We didn’t even have the means to build the cabin. We came with some plastic sheets, ”said de Jesús.
The increasing number of evictions caused by Brazil’s COVID-19 pandemic is worsening an already serious housing problem in the country. Before the pandemic, local authorities counted more than 200,000 families expecting adequate housing in Sao Paulo, a city of 12 million.
The human rights and research group LabCidade estimates that more than 2,000 families have lost their homes in the state of Sao Paulo since March, and another 1,000 face the same risk in the coming weeks. It is a high figure for a state with 46 million residents, approximately the same population as Spain.
Raquel Rolnik, a former UN special investigator on adequate housing and coordinator of LabCidade, says similar evictions have occurred across Brazil.
“We will soon see many more people on the streets,” Rolnik told The Associated Press by phone. “There is no public policy to handle these cases.”
Since the first wave of 35 residents built huts in Jardim Julieta in mid-March, another 765 families joined and 200 are online. Most were evicted from their homes during the new coronavirus pandemic, at a time when local authorities said they should stay home.
Judges, mayors and real estate agents and landlords have often ignored requests to suspend rent due to the virus, despite requests from prosecutors and human rights groups. Congress passed a bill to address the issue in June, but it was vetoed by President Jair Bolsonaro. Not even moving to a favela ensures residents will have shelter for now, as the police can still force them out.
The state of Sao Paulo is the epicenter of the pandemic in Brazil, with more than 20,000 deaths out of the country’s 82,000.
Karina Valdo, 38, was cleaning hospitals before she got pregnant with her third child, who is now eight months old. She and her husband relied on daily work to survive, but still managed to pay their $ 120 rent. When the virus hit, she sold many of her appliances to support her one-bedroom home. But that was not enough to convince your landlord to suspend your payments.
“If you don’t pay, you go to the streets,” he said.
De Jesús, Valdo, and their neighbors, who often share meals regardless of social distancing, are constantly concerned about the police. Officers have recently told them that they must leave before August 8. Prosecutors and activists are trying to block that measure in court.
Many Jardim Julieta residents were evicted from another favela that was dismantled by police on June 16 after a judge’s decision to return the land to its owner. The São Paulo city council said it offered shelter to the hundreds of affected families on the eastern edge of the city.
Almost 30,000 families get a $ 80 subsidy from the city of Sao Paulo for rent, but experts consider that amount to be too small. Brazil’s far-right administration has cut federal investment in housing programs.
Francisco Comaru, professor of urban planning at UFABC University, said that the city of São Bernardo do Campo, on the outskirts of Sao Paulo, has been one of the most aggressive with evictions. Dozens have been made through administrative decisions, without judicial intervention.
“Authorities are doing the exact opposite of what they should be doing now,” added Comaru. “It’s like they don’t understand what we’re going through.”
Valdo said he awaits a judge’s decision to stop the Jardim Julieta evictions. She said she is more afraid of being expelled again with her three children than contracting coronavirus.
“For the government, people like us are just dust,” he said. “We don’t exist.”
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