Housing in São Paulo and International Funding

Abstract

The City of São Paulo urbanization process has occurred in an extremely fast form, producing devastating side effects. The growth in an intense rate has transformed it in one of the largest city in the world, presenting a great social and territorial exclusion. Poverty lives together with technical and scientific developed, accessible only for a minority. Social and territorial exclusion in São Paulo have different expressions in the housing sites. This reality is clearly visible in degraded areas where the shanty towns (favelas) are located, occupied by population excluded from the access to urban service. Part of these degraded areas rehabilitation is taking place nowadays through the Secretaria Municipal da Habitação e Desenvolvimento Urbano – SEHAB - Housing and Urban Development Local Secretariat -, financed with international resources from Inter-American Development Bank - IDB. To finance these renovations IDB requires that measures on environment control and treatment should be taken. This paper analyses São Paulo urban growth and the action developed by local government during the last years, emphasizing IDB participation.