Recibido 08-07-2023

Aceptado 25-01-2024

https://doi.org/10.22320/07196466.2024.42.066.01

CITIZEN PARTICIPATION AS A DRIVER

OF HOUSING POLICIES: THE CASE

OF THE OCCUPATION OF THE

CAMBRIDGE HOTEL

LA PARTICIPACIÓN CIUDADANA COMO MOTOR

DE LAS POLÍTICAS DE VIVIENDA: EL CASO DE LA

OCUPACIÓN DEL HOTEL CAMBRIDGE

A PARTICIPAÇÃO CIDADÃ COMO INDUTORA

DE POLÍTICAS HABITACIONAIS: O CASO DA

OCUPAÇÃO HOTEL CAMBRIDGE

Pesquisa nanciada pela Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível

Superior - CAPES, modalidade 2.

Figura 0. Registro do estado

do edifício durante a ocupação.

Fonte: Jardiel Carvalho/R.U.A

Foto Coletivo, 28 nov; 2016

Isadora Paiva-de-Moraes

Mestre em Arquitetura e Urbanismo,

Superintendente de Habitação

Caixa Econômica Federal, Campinas, Brasil

http://orcid.org/0000-0002-9664-725X

Isadora.pm@puc-campinas.edu.br

Vera Santana-Luz

Doutora em Arquitetura e Urbanismo,

Professora e pesquisadora, Programa de Pós-

Graduação em Arquitetura e Urbanismo

"Pontifícia Universidade Católica de

Campinas", São Paulo, Brasil

https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6931-0574

veraluz@puc-campinas.edu.br

AS / Vol 42 / Nº 66 / 2024

ISSN Impresa 0716-2677

ISSN Digital 0719-6466

A participação cidadã como indutora de políticas habitacionais:

o caso da Ocupação Hotel Cambridge

Isadora Paiva-de-Moraes, Vera Santana-Luz

8-25

RESUMEN

Frente a la ineciencia del Estado en la provisión de vivienda, se pretendió identicar posibilidades en la lucha por la vivienda social, teniendo como

estudio de caso la Ocupación Hotelera de Cambridge, ubicada en el centro ampliado de la ciudad de São Paulo. El edicio, originalmente un hotel

construido en la década de 1950 con incentivos scales limitados al Plan de Conmemoración del IV Centenario de la ciudad, terminó sus actividades en

2002. Fue expropiado en 2011 y ocupado por el Movimiento Sin Techo del Centro, en 2012. Luego de tensiones y participación en consejos participativos,

el Movimiento obtuvo la donación del inmueble y una licencia en un programa federal de recalicación. A través de un análisis cualitativo del décit

habitacional del Brasil, concentrado en exceso de renta y precariedad de la propiedad, frente a políticas habitacionales centradas en la producción de

unidades a través de programas de desarrollo en localidades periféricas, se entiende que el análisis de los determinantes de la factibilidad del estudio

de caso puede contribuir a la discusión de las políticas y acciones gubernamentales. La metodología, basada en el campo procedimental, métodos

observacionales y revisión de literatura, en el campo lógico se estructuró en los métodos dialéctico e inductivo de investigación, sistematización y análisis

crítico de referencias bibliográcas y documentales y, en procesos empíricos, en el análisis cualitativo de entrevistas semiestructuradas y visitas de campo.

Se concluyó que el poder de diálogo y formación de redes del Movimiento, y su estrategia basada en rodearse de actores que solidican su lucha,

contribuyeron a la viabilidad del Hotel Cambridge para su uso residencial. A partir de los datos analizados, también se deende la innegable participación

de los municipios para viabilizar la dotación de viviendas en zonas céntricas. Sin embargo, considerando el sesgo hegemónico identicado, la acción política

de los movimientos sociales y la participación de la academia en su instrumentalización son de suma importancia para fortalecer la relación Capital-Estado

y posibilitar la confrontación de políticas territoriales que contemplen el derecho a la ciudad.

Palabras clave: participación ciudadana, ocupación, movimientos sociales, actores sociales, nanciación de la vivienda.

ABSTRACT

Faced with State inefciency in housing provision, the occupation of the Cambridge Hotel, located on the outskirts of São Paulo’s city center, was used as a case

study to identify possibilities in the struggle for social housing. The building, initially a hotel built in the 1950s, closed in 2002, was expropriated in 2011, and occupied

by the Downtown Homeless Movement (Movimento Sem Teto do Centro) in 2012. The movement, after social tensions and participation in participatory councils,

obtained the donation of the property and its license in a federal requalication program. Through qualitative analysis of the housing decit in Brazil, characterized

by the excessive burden of rents and the precariousness of real estate, in contrast to housing policies focused on the production of units through development

programs in peripheral locations, it is understood that the analysis of the determining factors for the case study’s feasibility can contribute to the discussion of

government policies and actions. The methodology, based on the procedural eld, observational methods, and literature review in the logical eld, was structured

in dialectical and inductive methods for the research, systematization, and critical analysis of bibliographic and documentary references and, in empirical processes,

in the qualitative analysis of semi-structured interviews and onsite visits. It was concluded that the power of dialogue and formation of the movement’s networks

and its strategy, based on surrounding itself with actors that solidify its struggle, contributed to the viability of the Cambridge Hotel as a residential property. Based

on the data analyzed, it is also argued that the participation of municipalities is undeniable in enabling the provision of housing in central areas. However, considering

the hegemonic bias identied, the political action of social movements and the participation of academia in its instrumentalization are essential to strengthen the

Capital-State relationship and enable the collation of territorial policies that the right to the city contemplates.

Keywords: citizen participation, occupation, social movements, social actors, housing nancing.

RESUMO

Diante da ineciência do Estado na provisão de moradias, pretendeu-se identicar possibilidades na luta por habitação social, tendo como estudo

de caso a Ocupação Cambridge, localizada no centro expandido da cidade de São Paulo. O edifício, originariamente um hotel construído na década de

1950, encerrou suas atividades em 2002, foi desapropriado em 2011 e ocupado pelo Movimento Sem Teto do Centro, em 2012. Após tensões sociais e

atuação em conselhos participativos, o movimento obteve a doação do imóvel e habilitação em programa federal para requalicação. Mediante análise

qualitativa do décit habitacional do Brasil, caracterizado pelo (?) ônus excessivo dos aluguéis e na precariedade dos imóveis, em contraposição com

políticas habitacionais centradas na produção de unidades por meio de programas de fomento em localização periférica, entende-se que a análise dos

fatores determinantes para a viabilização do estudo de caso pode contribuir para a discussão de políticas e ações governamentais. A metodologia, baseada

no campo procedimental, em métodos observacionais e revisão de literatura, no campo lógico se estruturou nos métodos dialético e indutivo para

investigação, sistematização e análise crítica de referências bibliográcas e documentais e, em processos empíricos, na análise qualitativa de entrevistas

semiestruturadas e visitas de campo. Concluiu-se que o poder de diálogo e formação de redes do movimento e sua estratégia baseada em cercar-se de

atores que solidiquem a sua luta, contribuíram para a viabilização do Hotel Cambridge como imóvel de uso residencial. Pelos dados analisados, defende-

se, também, a indelegável participação dos municípios para viabilizar provisão de moradias em áreas centrais. No entanto, considerando o viés hegemônico

identicado, a atuação política dos movimentos sociais e a participação da academia em sua instrumentalização são de extrema importância para tensionar

a relação Capital-Estado e possibilitar o cotejamento de políticas territoriais que contemplem o direito à cidade.

Palavras-chave: participação cidadã, ocupação, movimentos sociais, atores sociais, nanciamento habitacional.

A participação cidadã como indutora de políticas habitacionais:

o caso da Ocupação Hotel Cambridge

Isadora Paiva-de-Moraes, Vera Santana-Luz

8-25

AS / Vol 42 / Nº 66 / 2024

ISSN Impresa 0716-2677

ISSN Digital 0719-6466

INTRODUCTION

In 1948, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, promulgated by

the United Nations, declared housing as a universal human right:

Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the

health and well-being of himself and of his family, including food,

clothing, housing, medical care, and necessary social services,

and the right to security in the event of unemployment, sickness,

disability, widowhood, old age or other lack of livelihood in

circumstances beyond his control. (United Nations, [1948] c2023,

art. 25)

In 2020, the crisis generated by the COVID-19 pandemic

exponentiated the relationship between health and urban planning

(Borges & Marques, 2020). Social disparities and precarious housing

conditions were preponderant in the face of deaths concentrated in

peripheral neighborhoods, where informal construction, lack of basic

sanitation, and densication heightened the spread of the virus. The

distance of peripheral social housing projects aggravated the isolation

difculties due to the workers’ need to stay on public transport for long

periods. This framework greatly reinforces the essential character of the

Right to Housing and how it is intrinsically linked to other social rights.

Meanwhile, social movements that demand housing in infra-structured

areas2 struggle to guarantee these rights.

Regarding the Brazilian legal system, although it became a Republican

State in 1889, the implementation of an urban policy was possible

only in 1988—almost a century later—with the promulgation of

the Constitution of the Federative Republic of Brazil (1988), in the

resumption of democracy after the coup d’état and military government.

In this context, the right to housing was included, through a

complementary amendment as a social clause, in the Federal Constitution

of 1988. Engels (2015, p. 6) called it the” right of all rights “ at the end

of the 19

century and described, as a founding theoretical framework,

the consequences of accelerated urbanization and the dualism of

the countryside-city in 18th-century England. This situation would be

reproduced over time in other countries, simultaneously with the march

of urbanization under the molds of the industrial production process and

the speculative extraction of land value:

The expansion of large modern cities gives an articial,

enormously augmented value to land in certain areas, particularly

central locations. Instead of increasing this value, the buildings

built on them lower it since they no longer meet the changed

conditions; hence, they are demolished and replaced by others.

This happens rst with centrally located working-class dwellings,

whose rents never or only rarely slowly exceed a certain

maximum, even if the houses are extremely overcrowded [...]. The

result is that the workers are driven from the center of the cities

to the outskirts, that workers ‘dwellings and small dwellings, in

general, are becoming rare, expensive, and often even impossible

1 This article includes research

funded by the Coordination

of Personal Improvement of

Higher Education (CAPES, in

Portuguese), modality 2.

2 The neologism “infra-

structured“, with a hyphen, is

used here, appealing to the

negative value of inferiority or

lack connoted by the prex

infra-, as opposed to the term

”infrastructures”, which indicates

the positive presence of

infrastructures.

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ISSN Digital 0719-6466

A participação cidadã como indutora de políticas habitacionais:

o caso da Ocupação Hotel Cambridge

Isadora Paiva-de-Moraes, Vera Santana-Luz

8-25

to nd because, under these conditions, the construction industry,

for whom the most expensive dwellings offer a much better eld

of speculation, will only exceptionally build workers’ dwellings.

(Engels, [1873] 2015, p. 18)

Brazil followed this movement: the urban population jumped from

31% in the 1940s to 84.72% in 2015 (Instituto Brasileiro de Geograa

e Estatística [IBGE], c2023). Ermínia Maricato, in her article “Knowing to

Solve the Illegal City,” states that, although urbanization initially seemed

an alternative to the independence from the coronelista command,

modernity was accompanied by its archaic side: “[...] modernization is only

for a few; citizenship and rights, idem” (Maricato, s. d., P.1).

Contemporaneously, it is conrmed that despite the inclusion of a

chapter on Urban Policy in the Federal Constitution (1988), regulated by

the City Statutes (Law n. 10.257, 2001), an instrument that represented a

crucial legal advance in recognizing the social role of property, the fragility

of the Federative pact (Caldas, 2015), the obstacles of the judicial system

and the hegemonic character of the state-capital relationship, where the

law “for the few” is applied, is inuenced by the inheritance of socio-

spatial stratication that permeated the urbanization process. Hence, as

a rule, such laws are not sufciently applied - given the inclusion of the

right in a precarious way-which allowed the perpetuation of a process

where the right to the city is restricted to access to housing through

development programs, recurrently through nancing and not provision,

and comes to represent the means and not the end of the policies

implemented.

Some references outlined by Marx (2011), especially the use

value and the exchange value, and their reading by Harvey (2013),

are articulable to the fundamental concepts of the right to the city of

Lefebvre (2001) and analyzed under the right to housing, advocated by

the foremost legal frameworks such as State duty and the unreached

fundamental right, if the decit of 5.87 million homes in Brazil is seen

(João Pinheiro Foundation [FJP], 2021), in contrast to the existence

of 7.9 million idle properties (fjp, 2018). This dichotomy is aggravated

by the distortion caused by exchange value — which reinforces the

consolidated model in the country where the policy is reduced to

promotion programs despite the diverse needs identied through

quantitative analysis of the housing decit.

Such solutions imply that access to this fundamental right is reduced

or conditioned on the beneciary’s possibility of access to credit (Royer,

2009; Runo, 2015), and the requirement of cadastral regularity ultimately

excludes most of those in need.

In this context of the inefciency of the State’s action in providing

fundamental rights and the administration of the legacy of unbridled

urbanization, it is seen that social movements are strengthening as

A participação cidadã como indutora de políticas habitacionais:

o caso da Ocupação Hotel Cambridge

Isadora Paiva-de-Moraes, Vera Santana-Luz

8-25

AS / Vol 42 / Nº 66 / 2024

ISSN Impresa 0716-2677

ISSN Digital 0719-6466

Figure 1. MSTC Material

that distinguishes the terms

“invasion” and” occupation.”

Source: Downtown Homeless

Movement, MSTC, Aug.13th,

2020. Retrieved from

https://web.facebook.com/

movimentosemtetodocentro/

photos/pb.100069050783385.-

2207520000./283174403710225

9/?type=3

METHODOLOGY

essential agents of tension in the State Capital relationship. This is the

context in which this article is inserted, which defends citizen participation

as a fundamental instrument of opposition to the hegemonic bias by

making tangible, for the other sectors of civil society, the limitation of

the State, both in the provision of social housing and in ensuring the

application of the social role of property, as can be exemplied by the

material disclosure of the MSTC shown in Figure 1.

In the same sense, Caldas (2015) reects on the gains assigned to social

movements in ghting for urban reform, regarding “[...] the critical and

organizational capacity, even if the disputes are not victorious, at rst.” The

author also highlights the importance of the Movement’s potential during this

dispute to bring “society closer to reection on the city, citizenship, law and

democracy” (Caldas, 2015, p.91).

To achieve the proposed objectives, methodological strategies in the

procedural eld, observational and literature review methods, and dialectical

and inductive methods for investigating, systematizing, and critically analyzing

bibliographic and documentary references were utilized in the logical eld. We

also made on-site visits to the case study and territory of direct inuence.

AS / Vol 42 / Nº 66 / 2024

ISSN Impresa 0716-2677

ISSN Digital 0719-6466

A participação cidadã como indutora de políticas habitacionais:

o caso da Ocupação Hotel Cambridge

Isadora Paiva-de-Moraes, Vera Santana-Luz

8-25

Figure 2. Cambridge Hotel.

Source Photo: Werner

Haberkorn, 1940-1960.

Source: Paulista Museum

Collection, University of São

Paulo, iconography. Retrieved

from http://acervo.mp.usp.br/

IconograaV2.aspx#

The qualitative analysis of semi-structured interviews with

representatives involved in the project’s feasibility and testimony collections

during eld research was used to investigate the actors’ participation and

vision.

Articulated research, which resulted in an article, with the quantitative

and qualitative analysis of materials in sites selected related to the

movement’s leader, Carmen Silva, also contributed to the investigation

into the formation of her public gure and to the systematization of

facts related to the movement itself, since, considering the low academic

production related to it, as well as the absence of formal systematization

by the movement itself, such vehicles became an important source for this

case study.

The case of the Cambridge Residence – Socioespacial Clipping

The Cambridge Hotel opened in 1953, during the expansion of the

hotel network in São Paulo, to celebrate its IV Centenary. The Hotel

— designed by Francisco Beck, an exponent of modern architecture —

witnessed the center’s rise and decline after the migration of its commercial

activities to expansion areas, closing down in 2002, with labor and tax

liabilities.

A participação cidadã como indutora de políticas habitacionais:

o caso da Ocupação Hotel Cambridge

Isadora Paiva-de-Moraes, Vera Santana-Luz

8-25

AS / Vol 42 / Nº 66 / 2024

ISSN Impresa 0716-2677

ISSN Digital 0719-6466

The building is located on Avenida Nove de Julho, a vital corridor

connecting the downtown area to the main neighborhoods of São Paulo’s

southwest. It is inserted in an area equipped with infrastructure and

access to numerous public facilities. Considering the predominance of

housing developments of social Interest in peripheral areas to guarantee

the expected return by private capital, the location factor is the most

recurrent theme of criticism of the Minha Casa Minha Vida (My house, my

life) program, the main housing program in Brazil. In a document prepared

by the Comptroller General of the Union, the legacy that the “[...] social

segregation and mobility difculties are direct effects of distancing, in

addition to the lack of urban infrastructure nearby” is highlighted (Ministry

of Finance, 2020, P. 47).

However, as with the Cambridge Hotel, there are numerous idle

properties in the metropolises of Brazil and the world. In particular, for the

case on the agenda, we mention the city of São Paulo, where the housing

decit is 358,000 units. Contradictorily, the city is estimated to have

more than 2,800 idle, abandoned, underused, or sites without buildings,

equivalent to two million square meters unused (São Paulo, 2016; 2020).

The waiting list for the provision of social housing in the city of São Paulo

has more than one million people. City Hall projections point to 20,000

citizens living on the city streets, 60% in the central area (Companhia de

Habitação Popular do Estado de São Paulo [Cohab-SP], 2015).

Nevertheless, in the academic eld and among public entities, there is

a discussion of the need to requalify the central areas, which underwent

a process of abandonment from the 1970s with the induction of new

economic centralities. However, it is conrmed that sparse governmental

actions directed to their requalication, such as legislative incentives for

retrots, as well as for the production of Housing of Social Interest by

the Municipal Master Plan of 2014, at least in the municipality of São

Paulo, they ended up being appropriated by private initiatives. Production

of housing for higher income groups was stimulated, reversing public

resources, directly or through granting exemption from fees and taxes, as

instruments of private capital (Santo Amore, Sampaio, Higushi, & Pereira,

2015).

São Paulo is the largest city in Latin America, and the Metropolitan

Region of São Paulo is the 4

most populous on the planet (World

Population Review, c2023). The legacy of anti-cities, generated by the

urbanization phenomenon induced by the capital-state relationship —

fed back by targeted government actions — represents a socio-spatial

situation that is replicated in metropolises of several countries, which

makes this agenda relevant, as well as the systematization of social tensions

caused and solutions built through this dialectical process. Through its

critical analysis, the intention was to contribute to the discussion of

alternatives for public policies and urban planning in large centers.

AS / Vol 42 / Nº 66 / 2024

ISSN Impresa 0716-2677

ISSN Digital 0719-6466

A participação cidadã como indutora de políticas habitacionais:

o caso da Ocupação Hotel Cambridge

Isadora Paiva-de-Moraes, Vera Santana-Luz

8-25

The Downtown Homeless Movement (Movimento Sem Teto

do Centro)

This case study starts with the Downtown Homeless Movement (MSTC, in

Portuguese) — a social movement with relevant activity in the central region

of São Paulo — which provided more than 3,000 homes (MSTC, c2014).

The movement started from a group of women who met in a tenement

association. 60% of Brazil’s housing decit is suffered by women (FJP, 2021).

Their rst joint act was occupying a building on Rua Álvaro de Carvalho in

1997, now known as Ocupação Nove de Julho. The MSTC is led by Carmen

Silva, whose insurgent background stands out from forming networks and

partnerships to ght for the right to housing.

In an analysis of occupations in the center of São Paulo, Buonglio (2008)

mentions:

The occupations of buildings in the centers, dating from the 1990s

and intensifying after 2000 in several Brazilian capitals, cannot be

explained as the product of isolated actions but inserted in a period of

resumption of urban struggles as resistance against the deepening of

poverty and social precariousness linked to the context of neoliberalism.

The political and legal context of democratic consolidation brought

the debate on the social role of property and the city with the Federal

Constitution of 1988 and the City Statute of 2001. (Buonglio, 2008, p.

The MSTC considers that housing is a fundamental right, a “mainstay” for

other rights, for which the movement also ghts:

[...] the Movimento Sem-Teto do Centro is a movement of the struggle

for housing in the central region of São Paulo. It comprises over two

thousand people, including adults, children, and young people. We

defend the fundamental right to housing, guaranteed in the Constitution,

and universal human rights. Housing is not just about physical property.

“Home” means much more and includes family life, safety, health,

education, access to transportation, and community living. (MSTC, n.d.,

as cited in Moraes & Luz, 2023, p. 3)

Currently, MSTC coordinates ve occupations and one development- the

Cambridge Residence, completed through the Federal My Home My Life

Entities program. Recently, the Pode Entrar program, linked to the municipality

of São Paulo (Diário Ocial da Cidade de São Paulo (São Paulo, c2022, p.1)),

selected it for the construction of 200 units.

The Movement’s objective is “to improve the quality of life, housing, health,

leisure and culture for all members and those who want to be part of the

MSTC, defending, organizing and developing social work free of charge.”

Through the grassroots groups, in weekly and/or biweekly meetings, which

take place in four locations in the city of São Paulo, rights and duties in access

to citizenship are debated, based on the following lines: empowerment of

A participação cidadã como indutora de políticas habitacionais:

o caso da Ocupação Hotel Cambridge

Isadora Paiva-de-Moraes, Vera Santana-Luz

8-25

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low-income workers as subjects of rights; valorization of children’s education

and family health; community life and working together for self-management;

right to housing; the importance of regularization of members’ documentation;

access to social investment funds for housing; the relationship of the City’s

Statutes with social movements; right to the city; incentive to participation in

the agendas of public entities (Escola da Cidade, 2019, p.5). From the debates

— through grassroots groups and with the participation of civil society —

the movement seeks to value and encourage popular participation as an

instrument for forming public policies.

Social tensions circumscribed to the residential

Through popular participation and provoked social tensions confronting

the status quo identied in the housing provision, the MSTC could reverse

the direction of the property it currently legally occupies. The former luxury

hotel in São Paulo, expropriated by the municipality after several studies for

requalication and negotiations with the owners — who had tax debts for

more than ten years —would initially be directed to a private initiative through

a public-private partnership. However, it was then destined for donation to the

MSTC and subsequent selection in the federal nancing program for reform

(Moraes, 2023).

The lm “Era O Hotel Cambridge” (Aurora Filmes, 2016), in which

the occupation was the central theme, including the performance of real

characters, received several awards, which made it possible to experience later

an artistic residency3, a situation that, in addition to the reconguration of

the form of appropriation of space -which guaranteed, to the Residence, the

award in the Urban appropriation category by the Paulista Association of Art

Critics (APCA) in 2016-, also enabled the projection of the movement and the

occupation itself to segments that would not access their demands, enhancing

their projection and struggle4:

From these perspectives, it is possible to infer that the building, in the

course of its existence, as a Luxury Hotel, a decadent and inactive Hotel,

an alternative bar, occupation, lm set, artistic residence space, and, later, a

residence, constituted, in itself, the representation of “city-making,” as dened by

Agier (2014).

City-making must be understood as an endless, continuous, and

purposeless process. It makes sense in the context of continuously

expanding social and urban universes. This is why it seems possible to

elaborate the theoretical hypothesis (and the political wager) according

to which city-making is a pragmatic declination, here and now, of the

“right to the city” and its establishment. Movement is essential in this

conception of the city as a permanent construction. (Agier, 2014. Q.

491)

During the Movement’s struggle, the Cambridge Hotel, despite having been

identied in the Special Zone of Social Interest (ZEIS) by the Strategic Master

Plan of the municipality of São Paulo (São Paulo, 2014), would be destined, for

3 The Cambridge Artistic

Residency took place in the

period from March 2016

to January 2017, with the

presence of ve residents in the

Cambridge occupation. The

work had as central objectives:

the creation of collaborative

work; the use of common

areas as a place of work; the

formation of the interlocution

network with the community,

focusing on the duration of the

initiatives beyond the period

of residence. The collaboration

of psychotherapists was

highlighted, for group sessions

between residents and members

of the occupation (Yzquierdo,

2016).

4 The projection of the

Movement and the public gure

of Carmen Silva to other social

segments was identied through

research of media outlets about

the leader Carmen Silva (Moraes

& Luz, 2022).

AS / Vol 42 / Nº 66 / 2024

ISSN Impresa 0716-2677

ISSN Digital 0719-6466

A participação cidadã como indutora de políticas habitacionais:

o caso da Ocupação Hotel Cambridge

Isadora Paiva-de-Moraes, Vera Santana-Luz

8-25

Figura 3. Registration of the

state of the building during

the occupation.Source: Jardiel

Carvalho / R. U. a collective

Photo, Nov. 28th; 201

RESULTS

the most part, for families with income higher than six minimum wages, which

circumscribes its dispute to the hegemonic character, imposed by the capital-

state relationship, in the application and interpretation of laws. The inertia of the

municipality, considering the time elapsed since the end of the hotel’s activities

and the study of its direction for higher income groups, conditioned that as a

way of denouncing the inaction of the public power in guaranteeing the social

function of property, the building of the old hotel was occupied, in 2012, by the

Downtown Homeless Movement.

Between the occupation, which took place in 2012, and the delivery of

the development — currently called Residencial Cambridge — more than ten

years passed. Despite the numerous adversities, among them the struggle

to donate the land; challenges expected in requalication works; delay in

payments, due to scal restrictions; criminalization process, which involved the

leaders of the movement; and serious restrictions caused by the pandemic, the

project was nalized with the active participation of residents in assemblies,

with the fulllment of their demands such as, for example, changing the initial

project, to install a tank in all bathrooms, dispensing with the collective laundry

that had been proposed in the original project (Hodapp, as cited in Moraes,

2010).2023).

Case Study

In our research, we identied that the citizen participation of the

Movement’s members occurred in all phases of the process of guaranteeing

ownership of the property, project, and reform works, including, initially, the act

of occupation and encampment in front of the City Hall as a form of protest

against the direction provided by the municipality — when the direction to

entities was effectively negotiated. This was decisive for the reported reversal

and the achievement, by the MSTC, of the transfer of the property with

charges, which occurred in December 2015 (São Paulo, c2022).

A participação cidadã como indutora de políticas habitacionais:

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Thus, the history of the hotel, which was the object of “city-making”

(Agier, 2015) through the MSTC’s struggle, the upkeep of the collective

strength of the Movement — even in the face of so many adversities—, the

power of the networks created, and the experience of the actors chosen

by the Movement, indicate possibilities that oppose the imposed reality

related, at rst, to the protagonism of the plaintiffs in accessing their right

and opposition to the predominant peripheral locality.

As advocated by Maricato (1997), regarding the importance of

transformation in the ideological plane and on the awareness of the

excluded about their rights, it is possible to identify that, in an empirical

and effectively practical way, the phenomenon object of this study intends,

through its city-making movement, a possible “ rupture” of the status quo.

He highlights the MSTC:

[...] We emphasize, therefore, the recognition of housing as a right

(guaranteed in the Brazilian Federal Constitution of 1988), as well as

the expansion of the concept of housing, not only as a roof but as a

right to the city, including health, education, mobility, culture, security

and all the infrastructure for a dignied life in a sizeable exclusionary

metropolis such as São Paulo, where real estate speculation has

caused serious consequences to the lives of homeless and low-

income people, primarily black. (Escola da Cidade, 2019, P. 4)

The consonance of the Movement’s strategy and actions with its

conceptual scope and its respective contribution to the ideological plan,

whose need was highlighted by Maricato (1997), could be evidenced

through the bibliographic and eld research carried out. The diversity of

spectra of their actions demonstrates the complexity of their structuring

and the sophistication of their instruments of struggle in the course of their

maturation, as demonstrated by the historical milestones summarized in

Figure 4.

Regarding the governmental action for the property’s destination,

it should be noted that this was circumscribed to the same context of

overlapping private and public interests, overcome through the Movement’s

resistance and action in participatory councils. “Why not take advantage of

public assets to make 100% of social housing viable?”(Santo Amore et al.,

2015, P.1).

The organization of the space was carried out through the initial

occupation -when the building was cleaned, an immense amount of garbage

was removed. Electricity and hydraulic installations were carried out-, rst,

by the distribution of suitable environments for its occupants, according

to family or personal organization, as well as collective environments,

among which the following stand out: space with a library and computers

for common use, community kitchen, environment for children’s activities

and games, entrance hall with spaces to sit, reception and access control,

among others. All decisions, daily or special, are always taken collectively

through assemblies, including recurrently with the external participation of

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A participação cidadã como indutora de políticas habitacionais:

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Figure 4. Timeline with MSTC

milestones. Source: the authors,

from MSTC data.

guests, among which, on some occasions, one or another of the authors of

this study was present, and especially with the presence of professionals

and technical collaborators, during the retrot project and works. After

completing the work, the rooms were ready for use, of high quality, and

adapted to collective and individual demands, including detailed aesthetic

aspects.

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Figure 5. Residencial

Cambridge Residence and

Ocupação 9 de Julho. Source:

From right to left, from top to

bottom: Cambridge Residence:

ground oor entrance hall;

playroom; external view of

the building from Avenida 9

de Julho; meeting and study

room; Ocupação 9 de Julho:

Library; Meeting Room; Joinery.

Cambridge Residence: space for

future collective use provisionally

intended for bicycle storage.

Source: Author. Images taken

between February and March

2023. External Googlemaps

image, captured January 24th,

2024.

DISCUSSION

Given the facts identied, the indelible municipal action for the

viability of this case study can be seen surveying idle properties and

with possibilities of expropriation, effective negotiation of the property,

and direction to the entity through public appeal, situations that have

legal provision and could be replicated as a fundamental process in

the revitalization of central areas. Despite this decisive action for the

viability of the project, the achievement of its direction for housing

of social Interest had, as a preponderant factor, citizen participation,

including architects, technical advisors, academics, and representatives of

social movements, as members of the Municipal Housing Council. The

questioning of the actions of this body allowed the withdrawal from the

agenda, twice, of the proposal, which generated the time-lapse necessary

for specic action of the MSTC, which, among other actions, organized

the occupation itself and camp in front of the City Hall (Moraes, 2023)

and, later, in the elaboration of the technical and social project and the

monitoring of the construction and handover of the residence.

In an interview on the occasion of a work presented at the 11

Architecture Biennial of São Paulo, Carmen Silva highlighted the

importance of the participation of social movements in municipal councils,

which would congure a practical possibility of interference in public

policy, in line with their demands:

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CONCLUSIONS

That is why we are feared. Our organization causes the state

to fear us because we are an organized group, not an alienated

one. This fear is nonsense because we only want to be part

of this state. How are we part of the state? Participating in

the councils and their respective elections. The councils are a

great decentralization of public power that guarantees popular

participation in supervision and implementation. (Ferreira, 2017, as

cited in Studio XRio & Columbia GSAPP, 2019, p. 8, bold section

added)

In the universe of this case study, despite the difculties imposed on

the MSTC, it can be seen that the option taken by the Movement to

associate with partners with experience in technical assistance for Social

Housing (ATHIS), institutionalized by Law no.11,888 (2008) allowed the

involvement of employees and the discussion based on information and

technical proposals, given the need to overcome numerous challenges.

These challenges were due both to the limits of the program, the

overload of activities imposed on the Movement, and the absence of

investment readjustment, as well as to external factors that had an

important impact on the viability of the Enterprise: scal restriction by

the federal government, pandemic restrictions, inationary impact and

criminalization of movement leaders. Through these data, one can infer

the importance of ATHIS for realizing similar projects, which could also

be stimulated by government programs in all its spheres.

According to this qualitative analysis, the organizational structure

of the Movement is also worth highlighting, mainly its ability to rely on

other social actors, foster the construction of their knowledge, expand

the potential of their demands, and strengthen their capacity for struggle,

a process that Carmen Silva, during the formation of her public gure,

calls “exchange of knowledge [...] with which everyone learns a little”

(Ferreira, 2017, as cited in Studio XRio & Columbia GSAPP, 2019, P.8).

This article seeks to demonstrate the importance of social

movements and citizen participation as a way to compel the state,

through its political action, in its duty to provide social housing and also

to ensure that the properties under its management exercise their social

role, obligations that, without the tensions caused, could not exceed the

normative progress, given the hegemonic bias identied in government

policies, programs, and actions.

Under the normative aspect, it should be noted that, in Brazil, the City

Statute (2001) established general guidelines for urban policy, regulating

articles 182 and 183 of the Federal Constitution with the denition of

instruments that would allow municipal management, among which the

following can be found: concession of real right of use; concession of special

use for housing purposes; compulsory installment, construction, or use;

special usucaption of urban property; surface right; right of preemption;

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BIBLIOGRAPHIC

REFERENCES

onerous grant; right to build; transfer of construction and land regularization

(Brazil, 2001). Nevertheless, the lapse between the Hotel’s rst tax debt

enforcement action in 1999 and its effective expropriation, which occurred by

agreement between the parties in 2012, demonstrates the challenges to be

overcome for its effective use (Moraes, 2023, p. 46).

The MSTC’s stance on opening the doors of the occupation to artistic

residency and other cultural, academic, and income-generating activities,

which take place at Cambridge Residence, and to cultural, education, leisure,

and income-generating activities at Ocupação Nove de Julho, located next

door, seemed to be the right strategy in the authors’ opinion. The Movement

considered the possibility of adding to its struggle social actors who would not

be affected if this position were not adopted. This methodology can collaborate,

if replicated, with the formal introduction of popular actors in a systemic way

in the state and more plural social relations. The Movement’s strategy, by allying

with various segments of society and providing opportunities for such contacts

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research.

Due to its centrality and protagonism, this case study’s cut is located in the

eld of exceptions. However, the systematization of its success can indicate the

adequacy of existing public policies.

As Carmen Silva reects (Ferreira, 2017, as cited in STUDIO XRio &

GSAPP, 2019, P.8), “Every right without action is dead.” Public management

should be based on quantitative control methods, as they already exist, but also

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Considering the status quo identied in this case study, the articulation

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