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Presentation
The Evictions Observatory is a project coordinated by LabCidade (FAU-USP) in partnership with LabJuta (UFABC) and the Transborda Research Group (UNIFESP). It maps and discloses information on evictions and eviction threats in the São Paulo Metropolitan Area since 2012.
We deploy two methods for mapping and collecting data, which produce three results:
Like any method, the Collaborative Eviction Mapping has some limitations. Data was obtained from multiple methods and data sources. The result does not contain, neither intends to contain, the entire universe of eviction processes. As a consequence, the recorded data do not provide the absolute scale of evictions, nor can they be used to verify their intensification or relaxation – since the limited reach of our recording tools can interfere with the reading.
Based on this data, the Evictions Observatory aims to: a) identify and understand, at different scales, the impacts caused by evictions and threats; and b) systematize and share information to strengthen the resistance of those affected against urban policies and projects that imply evictions and human rights violations.
Timeline
Collective mapping results were compiled up to June 2024, and the quantitative analysis was compiled up to July 2024.
The historical series of the Eviction Collaborative Mapping reinforces the thesis that there is a systematic dynamic of dispossession that keeps thousands of families in a constant situation of housing insecurity.
The COVID-19 pandemic, decreed in March 2020 by the World Health Organization (WHO), is a recent historic mark for mapping evictions, due to periods of suspension of evictions by the Brazilian Supreme Court. However, in violation of national and international recommendations, the forced displacement of people continued to be carried out by public and private agents, even in the face of a health emergency scenario.
The number of evictions was not even greater due to articulations of social movements against dispossession processes, such as the “Zero Eviction” Campaign. Launched in July 2020, the initiative was essential for the Brazilian Supreme Court to grant, in the following year, a legal instrument (ADPF 828) that suspended, from June 2021 to October 2022, administrative or judicial measures that would result in evictions, forced removals or repossession of a collective nature in properties that serve as housing or that represent a productive area for the individual or family work of vulnerable populations.
Throughout the period in which it was in force, the ADPF 828 had the effect of suspending many evictions, but it was also marked by non-compliance on the part of public agents of governments and the São Paulo State Courts.
The most recent updates indicate that, at this moment, downtown São Paulo is the epicenter of evictions, which take place in the midst of the “transitional regime” established by the Supreme Court, in October 2022, in view of the end of the suspension of dispossessions. The picture that is announced is the resumption of evictions without any support for the affected families.
* Emphasis on the number of cases opened in 2020, the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic, and upheld or approved in 2021 – a total of 714 cases, the second largest volume in the historical series –, despite the state of health emergency and validity of ADPF 828.
This publication was produced with the support of the Rosa Luxemburg Foundation (RLF) and funds from the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ). The content of the publication is the exclusive responsibility of LabCidade and does not necessarily represent the position of the RLF.
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