Brazil: Evicted families receiving assistance
Most of the families evicted from the Olga Benario settlement on 24 August have started to receive assistance thanks to support from our partner APOIO
An emergency package to provide six months’ rental allowance of around R300 (£100) per month has been successfully negotiated for 570 of the 800 families evicted from the Olga Benario settlement, in Brazil's biggest city Sao Paulo, in August 2009.
A total of 351 families have already received the first two months’ allowance. Meanwhile the struggle for a permanent solution to their housing problems continues, even though the land they were evicted from had already been designated by the government as an area for the development of social housing.
Just the first step
Felicia Mendes, a co-ordinator for APOIO, says: “This is just the first step. Negotiations will continue until we obtain permanent housing. Meetings with various government agencies will be needed to identify areas for homes, including the land that we were evicted from.
"The owner of that land is in debt to the tax authorities and it has been designated a Zone of Special Social Interest. Without CAFOD’s lobbying and solidarity we would not have managed to get this emergency assistance.”
“But what we want is permanent housing. This will be a long struggle and for this we need your ongoing support. We have to make sure the government fulfils its promises to provide these families with decent housing. This is still our aim."
Felicia is also concerned for more than 150 families who fled the area before the eviction. She says the police started putting pressure on families to leave two weeks before the eviction and many went to stay with relatives. But she is determined they should also benefit.
She adds: “Those families who left Olga Benario before the eviction are not covered by this agreement. They remain without a home. This will be a further struggle. We must make sure they are also included in other housing projects."
Meanwhile, another eviction on October 21 involving 900 families from the Alto Alegre camp in the east of the city left 240 families with nowhere to go.
They were forced to camp on the side of the road without any sanitation facilities and underneath a huge electricity pylon, and still await the emergency support they have been promised.
APOIO had been negotiating with the authorities for all the 900 families to be included into government housing programmes but, despite this work, troops arrived in the early hours of the morning with no warning.
Felicia and other APOIO staff will continue to pressure the local government on behalf of all those evicted from the two camps.
For every £1 given to our Give it up! appeal this Lent, including Lent Fast Day, the government will donate another £1 – doubling your donation and changing even more lives |
884 million people do not have access to clean, safe water. Pray with us this Lent that waters may flow and injustice may be washed away. |
Help us turn the tide on water poverty. Join our Thirst for change campaign and ensure world leaders hear our call: taps and toilets for all. |
