Government resumes construction of popular house after 3 years of paralysis

After more than three years of stoppage, the Jair Bolsonaro (PL) government is preparing the first contracting of new housing units subsidized with budget resources, aimed at families with an income of up to R$ 2,000 per month.

The new contracts will be signed in the year that Bolsonaro will seek re-election to the Palácio do Planalto. The program has been one of his political showcases and was used to expand the president’s insertion in the Northeast region, the only one where he was not a winner in the 2018 dispute.

Up to 2,450 units will be built in several cities in Brazil under the Casa Verde e Amarela program. Deliveries are planned for from 2023.

The volume to be contracted is far from the big advertisements of the predecessor Minha Casa, Minha Vida, a showcase of PT governments and which reached the point of contracting more than 500 thousand units for the former tier 1 (families with income up to R$ 1,800) in a single year. .

On the other hand, the resumption of public notices breaks the fast of the Casa Verde e Amarela program, which since its launch, in August 2020, has focused on the continuity of works contracted in previous governments and on the granting of financing.

The last announcement of new units took place in December 2018, still in the Michel Temer government (MDB). Since then, a small contract, of 1,500 houses, was made by court order. Other than that, the release of new public notices was completely frozen.

The lack of provision for new units for low-income families, who are less able to finance their own home, has always been a point of criticism at Casa Verde e Amarela.

The low availability of resources for housing policy has been one of the main constraints. In recent years, the money available in the Budget has dwindled considerably.

At its peak, Minha Casa, Minha Vida received almost R$30 billion in public funds in 2015, at current values. Last year, the expense was R$ 1.4 billion.

For this year, the Ministry of Regional Development has R$ 740 million. The request had been for R$ 800 million, but the National Congress itself cut resources from the program in the midst of negotiations to boost the so-called rapporteur’s amendments – an instrument used by parliamentarians to send funds to their electoral strongholds.

With little space in the Budget, the MDR had been focusing its firepower on resuming stalled works, with no room for new hires. In 2019, there were about 198 thousand units paralyzed, of which 114 thousand have already had the construction site reactivated.

Government will prioritize areas that already have infrastructure, says secretary

Now, the MDR will resume hiring under a new model, which provides for smaller housing projects and in locations close to local infrastructure.

In an interview with sheetthe national secretary of Housing, Alfredo Santos, says that the public notices seek to correct errors in Minha Casa, Minha Vida that have been identified over the last few years.

In the old program, created as a policy to boost economic activity and job creation in the midst of the international crisis, it was common to launch ventures in isolated locations, under the promise — not always fulfilled — of building schools, health centers or roads to improve access to urban infrastructure.

Now, according to Santos, the selection of projects will favor areas that already have these public facilities at their disposal. “We have to insert this public within the mesh. We can no longer continue creating ghettos, having an enterprise 10 kilometers from the first neighborhood”, he says.

“We can’t do it like it was done in the North of the country, 5,000 units and everyone leaves inside. It’s unacceptable. Sorry, I’m not here to be critical of the work done. It had a lot of merit, but now we’re going to correct it”, says the secretary.

A first selection of projects has already been completed by the MDR. From a competition, three architectural projects were chosen for new housing units, within the parameters indicated by the government.

Then, the lands located in Londrina (PR), Olinda (PE) and Campo Grande (MT) were selected, following the criteria of available infrastructure and employment possibilities for future residents. Each municipality will receive 150 units.

A second public notice, still in progress, will select projects for the construction of up to 2,000 units in several municipalities. The MDR will allow developments of up to 250 units, and the intention is to limit the choice to one per state, to ensure diversification.

The projects will be presented by the municipalities, which will donate the land for the construction of the condominiums.

The idea is to favor projects that bring together the greatest number of characteristics, including better location, availability of solar energy use, training initiatives and use of part of the space for local commerce.

The government also wants to anticipate the selection of families that will be covered by the housing units. Under the new rule, city halls will have to indicate the families covered within 120 days after contracting the project.

Today, according to Santos, as the selection is made at the end of the process, there are about 15 thousand units of tier 1 already delivered, but that are empty because the municipalities did not indicate the beneficiaries.

Government also intends to offer social rent to combat housing deficit

Subsidized housing construction is considered a key element in reducing the number of so-called precarious homes, a classification that accounts for 25.2% of the housing deficit in the country, according to a 2019 diagnosis made by Fundação João Pinheiro. In all, almost 1.5 million households are in this situation.

But this is not the only component of the housing deficit in the country. The biggest one is the excessive rent burden (51.7%) — when the family spends more than a third of income to pay housing costs. For this problem, the secretary says that the government’s bet is social rent.

A first public-private social rental partnership pilot was contracted in Recife. The private sector will produce the units, and the municipality will manage the policy, subsidizing the rent. In the future, as resources become available, the federal government may also sponsor local initiatives.

A second pilot should be commissioned soon, but with a focus on ventures for the elderly. The intention in this case is to enable the construction of condominiums that provide local medical care and other activities, through a rent charge that could be 10% of the elderly person’s income. The inspiration comes from successful experiences in São Paulo, Paraná, Mato Grosso and Paraíba.

The government should also launch a public notice this week to carry out the land tenure regularization of 85,000 housing units. Of these, 15,000 will also receive improvements and renovations. The policy is also aimed at families with an income of up to R$2,000.

To receive the deed to the house, the beneficiary families will pay a single installment of BRL 50. Those benefiting from improvements will be able to carry out renovations worth up to BRL 14,000, and will pay a single amount of BRL 170.

The resources will come from the FDS (Fund for Social Development), a private fund that was recently supplied with donations negotiated with financial institutions.