The resumption of the Minha Casa, Minha Vida program is considered by the federal government to be its main achievement of housing policy in the first 100 days of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva’s administration. A Provisional Measure 1,162, of February 14, 2023was sent to Congress with some changes in relation to the original program, which existed from 2009 to 2020.
Researcher Adauto Cardoso, from the Observatório das Metrópoles and the Urban and Regional Planning Research Institute, both from the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ), did not expect the program to resume in such a short time. “It was a surprise for me that, so quickly, a Provisional Measure was already formulated, which went to Congress, and that, therefore, a faster resumption of the program may be taking place”.
Among the modifications to the program is the expansion of its scope. Now, in addition to promoting the construction of new housing units and the improvement of existing homes, it will also support the social leasing of real estate in cities and technological innovation to reduce costs, environmental sustainability and the improvement of construction quality.
The MP also brings, among the program’s guidelines, the promotion of integrated housing planning with infrastructure, mobility and sanitation, among other policies. For Cardoso, the new program incorporates reflections and criticisms suffered in its previous version. Among them, the concern with the integration of housing projects with the city. The researcher at Instituto Pólis, Rodrigo Iacovini, also sees these changes in the program positively.
“It is very important, because he [o novo Minha Casa, Minha Vida] brings different possibilities [além da construção de novas moradias]but the future budget of the program needs to prioritize these other forms of assistance”, he says.
According to the provisional measure, Minha Casa, Minha Vida establishes six income ranges, three of which are aimed at city dwellers and the other three for those who live in the countryside. In the urban area, bracket 1 caters to families with a gross family income of up to R$2,640.00, bracket 2 is for those with an income of BRL 2,640.01 to BRL 4,400.00, and bracket 3 for people with an income of R$ $4,400.01 to BRL 8,000.00.
In the rural zone, the ranges are as follows: range 1 (gross annual family income up to R$31,680.00), range 2 (from R$31,680.01 to R$52,800.00) and range 3 (from R$52,800.01 to BRL 96,000.00).
“Updating the income brackets is positive and needs to be updated more consistently. But I still think it would be necessary to develop other parameters. Not only in terms of gross income, because the gross family income of R$ 2,640 for a family with three or four people is very different from R$ 2,640 for eight people”, highlights Iacovini.
peripheral territories
Adauto Cardoso considers that, even before the relaunch of Minha Casa, Minha Vida, the government had already taken an important step towards housing policy with the recreation of the Ministry of Cities. The folder had been extinguished in 2019 and had its functions incorporated into the Ministry of Regional Development.
“The recreation of the Ministry of Cities is extremely important. The Ministry of Cities had been a very successful experience, achieved progress in various sectors of urban policies and had a very relevant role in the housing area”.
Both Cardoso and Iacovini also highlight the creation of a special secretariat within the Ministry of Cities to deal with peripheral territories. For them, it is something positive to work on the housing agenda.
“Finally, the Brazilian government understands that housing is not just about building new units. Although we see that the housing deficit is 5 million units, and this scares us, we often don’t see that the housing inadequacy is 24 million families. I.e, [são pessoas] in need of investment in the infrastructure of the region where he lives, improvements in the building. In order to solve the housing situation in Brazil, we would really need to prioritize modalities of urbanization of slums, of housing improvements”, said Iacovini.
Rent
Iacovini pointed out that, at the beginning of his administration, he missed having a discussion about the regulation of the rental market. “I still haven’t seen any signs from the government in that sense. A large part of our housing deficit in recent years has grown as a result of the excessive burden of rent. Rent has gone up a lot for a lot of people. We have to go back to talking about the regulation of tenant relations in Brazil. Without this, no matter how much investment there is in housing, we will not move forward”.
For Cardoso, what was missing was the reinstallation of the Council of Cities, which could have contributed to the drafting of the MP for Minha Casa, Minha Vida. “We know that the ministry is talking to different social groups, it is listening to businessmen, specialists from universities. But you don’t have an established institutional forum to discuss these proposals. That, at least, when discussing the regulation [do programa] this forum already exists to forward more tailored proposals”.
Rodrigo Iacovini highlighting the need to maintain permanent investments in housing in the country. “We need to have a stamped and permanent resource for housing, because, without that, the municipalities cannot plan in the long term for the implementation of necessary programs. Housing is not something that is done overnight”.
