REPORT
MAJOR HOUSING DEVELOPMENTS WORKSHOP
HOTEL TRANSAMÉRICA – SÃO PAULO/SP
14-15 September 2010
Credits:
Notes and support for final text preparation:
Anacláudia Rossbach
Danielle Klintowitz
Kazuo Nakano
Vera Viana
Preparation of final text:
Danielle Klintowitz
Kazuo Nakano
English translation by John Penney
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CONTENTS
1. Introduction………………………………………………………………………… 3
2. Challenges to be met in order to guarantee good quality major housing
developments…………………………………………………………………………....5
2.1. The challenge of deciding what constitute major housing developments, by
considering their internal characteristics and their impacts on the urban environment
and surrounding neighbourhoods…………………………………………………... 5
2.2. The challenge of assuring the economic viability of large-scale production of
major housing developments, and their urban, environmental and architectural
quality………………………………………………………………………………..6
2.3. The challenge of ensuring the sustainability of major housing developments
through the diversification, improvement and innovation of housing types, building
methods and construction materials………………………………………………....7
2.4. The challenge of ensuring the sustainability of major housing developments
through improved norms and protocols governing social work……………………..8
2.5. The challenge of integrating major housing developments into the urban
environment by increasing the supply of suitable urbanised land………………….10
2.6. The challenge of integrating major housing developments into the urban
environment by ensuring access to commercial establishments, services, amenities
and basic urban infrastructure……………………………………………………....10
2.7. The challenge of integrating major housing developments into the urban
environment by ensuring that the federal, state and municipal governments, as well
as private agents, coordinate joint actions………………………………………….12
2.8. The challenge of monitoring and evaluating the results and impacts occasioned
by the building of major housing developments…………………………………...14
3. Contributions by the international participants to the discussions on major
housing developments………………………………………………………………...15
3.1 Contributions by South Africa……………………………………………….. 15
3.2 Contributions by Chile………………………………………………………. 16
3.3 Contributions by Colombia…………………………………………………... 17
3.4 Contributions by El Salvador…………………………………………………. 18
3.5 Contributions by Spain……………………………………………………….. 18
3.6 Contributions by Mexico………………………………………………………19
4. Follow-up action………………………………………………………………….. 21
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1. Introduction
This report aims to present an account of the subjects presented and discussed at the
Major Housing Developments Workshop held in São Paulo on 15 and 16 September
2010. The workshop, sponsored by the Ministry of Cities, the Caixa Econômica Federal
(CEF) and Cities Alliance, was attended by experts engaged in a variety of areas related
to housing development in both a domestic and international context. The workshop
played host to representatives from housing development institutions from South Africa,
Chile, Colombia, El Salvador, Spain and Mexico, as well as leaders of popular
movements and practitioners in civil construction, the private property development
market and the financial sectors.
The main purpose of this workshop arose from the need to define guidelines, criteria
and instruments which could contribute to developing social housing on a large scale,
especially targeted at meeting the demand for housing from the lower income
population with good quality solutions from an urban, environmental and architectural
point of view. Given this remit, the proposed questions for discussion in the workshop
revolved around the following key themes 1:
- The economic viability of housing developments in major urban centres and
consideration of types of housing involved;
- The economic and social sustainability of large housing developments for low income
populations, and the question of post-occupation;
- The urban question and the role of the public authorities in the production of largescale housing developments.
The above themes are central to any housing programme, including Brazil's Minha
Casa, Minha Vida Programme (PMCMV), which at present involves the efforts of a
substantial number of government, social and private housing market stakeholders. This
programme, now up and running in a number of Brazilian cities, involves producing
housing for families receiving up to 10 minimum salaries. The programme has
progressed well, producing a number of highly positive results, as well as generating a
set of new challenges, obstacles and problems. The first results of the programme have
clearly shown the need to ensure that Brazil's national housing production combines
quantitative targets with qualitative objectives.
The PMCMV 1 adopted as its quantitative target the construction of one million new
homes comprising the following: 400,000 units for families in the income bracket of
between 3 and 6 minimum salaries, and 200,000 units for those earning between 6 and
10 minimum salaries. PMCMV 2 plans to produce 2 million new homes, of which 1.2
million will be earmarked for families with household incomes of up to 3 minimum
salaries, 600,000 for families receiving between 3 and 6 minimum salaries and 200,000
units for families on 6 to 10 minimum salaries.
According to calculations made by the João Pinheiro Foundation, Brazil´s housing
deficit in 2008 amounted to 5.6 million household units. By 6 September 2010, the
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MINISTRY OF CITIES: Workshop Baseline Document. 2010
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building of 630,886 units had been contracted under the aegis of the PMVCV 1, which
corresponded to 63% of the programmes´s global target. Of this number 357,420 units
were earmarked for families on incomes of up to 3 minimum salaries (89.4% of the
partial target) and 76,817 for families receiving between 6 and 10 minimum salaries
(38.4% of the partial target). It should be noted that the majority of the housing units
earmarked for families with up to 3 minimum salaries are in the Northeast macro-region
of the country2.
To date, the housing units contracted under PMVCV 1 account for resolving 11.3% of
the country's housing deficit, according to the most recent calculations. The two
versions of the PMVCV are together expected to satisfy 53.6% of the shortage. It is no
secret that much still remains to be done to meet the need for new homes in Brazil.
However, there is no question that Brazil is presently enjoying a set of circumstances
which greatly favour the development of new housing. The underlying positive factors
over the last few years are the country´s low rates of unemployment, a trend towards
reduction in the SELIC interest rates and an increase in per capita earnings, together
with growth in the consumer market and a resulting overall expansion of the urban
middle class3. Factors such as these present an excellent opportunity to respond to the
challenge of upscaling efforts to meet current housing needs.
At the same time, it is essential to view current housing requirements in the context of
future demand. This will certainly arise as the result of Brazil's continuing demographic
growth. In this respect, to the current housing deficit of 5.6 million homes must be
added the prospect of a further 23 million new homes which need to be constructed
between 2009 and 2023. The great challenge is therefore to ensure that the new homes
to be built in Brazilian cities are fit for purpose and do not lead to new housing
shortages over the longer term.
In these circumstances strenuous efforts are called for to focus on designing strategies,
instruments and sets of criteria aimed at upscaling the various aspects of large-scale
production of major social housing developments. The contents of the present Report
(introduction, plus the three remaining sections) represent one outcome of such efforts.
The first section of the Report presents, in the form of a series of challenges, the various
key points raised by the Brazilian participants in the workshop which need to be faced
in order to guarantee a supply of good quality large housing developments in Brazil.
The second section contains contributions by the international participants at the
workshop, based upon experiences in their own countries. The final part of the Report
outlines a number of follow-up action points. These were defined at the Technical
Meeting on 17 September 2010, involving technical staff from the sponsoring
institutions of the workshop - Cities Alliance, the Ministry of Cities and the Caixa
Econômica Federal.
2
Presentation by Sr. Jorge Heredia, Vice-President of the Urban Development Division, Caixa
Econômica Federal.
3
Idem.
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2. Challenges which need to be met in order to ensure good quality construction of
major housing developments.
The contributions by the workshop participants were based on the following set of
challenges:
1. The challenge of deciding what constitute major housing developments, by
considering their internal characteristics and their impacts on the urban environment
and surrounding neighbourhoods.
2. The challenge of assuring the economic viability of large-scale production of
major housing developments as well as their urban, environmental and architectural
quality.
3. The challenge of ensuring the sustainability of major housing developments
through the diversification, improvement and innovation of housing types, building
methods and construction materials.
4. The challenge of ensuring the sustainability of major housing developments
through improved norms and protocols governing social work.
5. The challenge of integrating major housing developments into the urban
environment by increasing the supply of suitable urbanised land.
6. The challenge of integrating major housing developments into the urban
environment by ensuring access to commercial establishments, services, amenities
and basic urban infrastructure.
7. The challenge of integrating major housing developments into the urban
environment by ensuring that the federal, state and municipal governments, as well
as private agents, coordinate joint actions.
8. The challenge of monitoring and evaluating the results and impacts occasioned by
the building of major housing developments.
2.1 The challenge of deciding what constitute major housing developments, by
considering their internal characteristics and their impacts on the urban
environment and surrounding neighbourhoods.
Clear and accurate definitions need to be established about what can be rated as a major
housing development. A consensus exists that the scale of a housing development
cannot be solely determined on the basis of individual unit numbers. The concept of a
major housing development is much more complex and abstract. Much depends on the
internal characteristics of a particular housing development, as well the features of the
surrounding neighbourhood. Consideration has to be given to the relationship between
the housing development and different environments, especially to the kind of impacts
that it can have on the immediately surrounding area or areas, the broader
neighbourhood and even the city in which it is located.
A major development might, or might not, consist of housing complexes of the same
size and containing the same number of units, but in different places. One development
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located in a small city offering few services could impact significantly on that city,
while another identical complex, located in a larger city and supplied with good
services, amenities and basic urban infrastructure, as well as benefiting from a public
authority more attuned to urban planning and land management, would be better suited
to such a city and cause fewer negative impacts on the urban and neighbourhood
environments.
2.2. The challenge of assuring the economic viability of large-scale production of
major housing developments and their urbanistic, environmental and architectural
quality.
Housing development construction by the private real estate market displays a
contradiction between the need to move ahead quickly with the building of housing
projects for low-income families and the constraints exercised by the state and
municipal authorities with regard to controlling, coordinating, planning and regulating
this process in an effort to ensure the good urban, environmental and architectural
quality of the housing solutions adopted. This contradiction must be addressed by
clearly defining the roles of each of the public and private sector agents involved in
social housing provision. Large-scale housing production therefore requires the
involvement of, and close liaison between, the federal government, the states, the
municipal authorities, the business sectors and social movements.
A further question arising from the involvement of the private sector in social housing
production is the need to insist upon arrangements which involve achieving economic
viability in housing construction without affecting negatively the quality of the housing
produced. In order to achieve a proper balance between economic viability and quality
construction the following points must be borne in mind:
I. The costs involved in accessing suitable urban land where the value of such land can
vary from one location to another;
II. The costs involved in making optimum use of suitable urban land by constructing
high-rise “vertical” apartment buildings, which call for the use of elevators or for
introducing innovative designs which hold out the prospect of new accommodation
types;
III. The costs involved in building large housing developments of a size and number of
units which can produce substantial value-added benefits;
IV. The costs of modernisation, industrialisation and incorporation of technical
innovations in the civil construction chain (for example, the use of prefabricated metal
structures by the Bairro Novo firm for building new housing developments quickly and
on a large scale);
V. Reduced taxes on the inputs employed in the building of social housing
developments;
VI. The costs involved in training the construction workforce, which can be carried out
on site in those major housing developments calling for a knowledge of innovative
building techniques;
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VII. The continuing availability, or not, of funding for housing finance and, the
continuing prospect, or not, of the production processes involved in constructing new
homes on a large scale;
VIII. The costs of developing different and innovative design projects for producing
new types of housing units.
2.3. The challenge of ensuring the sustainability of major housing developments
through the diversification, improvement and innovation of housing types,
building methods and construction materials.
The various agents working in different parts of the social housing production chain,
including architects, incorporators, construction firms, private financial institutions, the
CEF and different federative bodies, still find it extremely difficult to incorporate
innovations and alternative approaches with regard to the use of materials, building
techniques and different types of housing units.
It is vital to overcome this stumbling block in order to develop worthwhile projects
which ensure better quality living spaces and encourage families to stay longer in them.
The main problem arises from the reluctance of private sector practitioners to show
greater flexibility in the building of housing developments for families in the very low
income bracket (between 0 and 3 minimum salaries). These types of units often involve
predefined room sizes, configurations, materials and construction methods which
frequently need to be modified to suit local and regional environments.
A useful step would be to consider redistributing responsibilities within the CEF
apparatus and to create mechanisms to encourage and reward both public and private
agents seeking housing finance who are willing to commit themselves, in a creative and
innovative manner, to the utilisation of materials, building techniques and suitable
housing unit types which take better account of prevailing cultural, environmental,
climatic etc circumstances. It is particularly important to consider adopting innovations
which reflect the different income levels of the beneficiaries and which, furthermore,
can assist the design of projects involving minimum maintenance costs.
Diversification of housing solutions must be considered, including diversification of
socio-spatial arrangements. This can generate different types of urban activities and
make it possible for social groups of varying income levels (including those with lower
incomes) to mix more freely and avoid endorsing cycles of social vulnerability. This
means ensuring a mixture of different types of housing units in a single housing
development, with different configurations, floor areas, numbers of bedrooms, and
ensuring that spaces can be adapted to meet special needs in line with existing demands,
including those involving elderly and handicapped people. This type of diversification
is a significant challenge with regard to the housing solutions produced by commercial
operators.
Furthermore, priority should be awarded to the creation of small condominiums within
major housing developments, as an alternative to a few large condominiums. The
purpose of this approach would be to generate a greater feeling of security among the
residents. Small condominiums can also serve to enhance good neighbourliness among
the occupants and facilitate condominium management, supported by community
organisations and residents´ associations.
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Good quality community spaces should also be created such as patios, squares and
green areas near to the housing complexes, which are accessible on foot by residents
and which offer opportunities for leisure activities close to where people live. This can
help to generate friendly gathering places and also provide greater visual attractiveness
to a large development. Community amenities and equipments can serve as reference
points in the daily lives of the residents and also help to improve good neighbour
relations.
The experiences of the National Housing Bank (BNH) and European countries have
shown that large housing developments which are occupied exclusively by low-income
people can deteriorate into ghettos and are subject to a slumming-down process such as
has occurred in the Cidade de Deus favela in Rio de Janeiro.
The sustainability of major housing developments also depends on the availability of a
mixture of commercial and services amenities both within and, more importantly, in the
immediate neighbourhood of housing developments. These can serve to generate real
"neighbourhood life" with its own urban and economic dynamics which can aid
economic sustainability and prevent such places from becoming mere dormitory
neighbourhoods. In this regard, it is better that such commercial and services
establishments serve not only the occupants of the housing development, but also the
population in the surrounding areas. These facilities, preferably located on the outer
perimeter of the development, should be easily accessible to the latter.
Housing production must reflect the character not only of different types of cities, but
also of the different types of urban spaces that already exist in our cities. In other words,
a new development must be in tune with its urban surroundings. For example, the social
housing developments constructed in downtown areas could be planned in such a way
as to provide spaces for commercial and retail establishments at ground-floor level,
whether in new or rehabilitated buildings. Such amenities could be provided in special
social interest zones, and thought should also be given to adapting them to occupy
suitable sites in nearby vacant buildings. Housing production in these areas could be
undertaken by nonprofit entities on a self-management basis or with the involvement of
private companies.
2.4. The challenge of ensuring the sustainability of major housing developments
through improved norms and protocols governing social work.
It is also vital to highlight the importance of social work to guarantee the sustainability
of large housing developments. However, clearly-defined norms and protocols do not
yet exist for undertaking such key work at the different stages of large-scale housing
production. It is therefore important to evolve a set of norms covering social work
procedures, with an agenda formulated together with residents before, during and after
construction of a particular housing development. This applies to developments
produced both by the public authorities as well as by the private sector. These norms
and protocols need to provide relevant social work guidance to both public authority
and private sector agents.
The normatisation process must establish the methodologies to be adopted at the
different stages required in the context of social work, as well as to define the groups of
beneficiaries at least six months before building work gets underway. Note that the
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social work-related methods employed in smaller housing developments and slum
upgrading processes can differ from those adopted for larger housing developments and
slums.
The lack of norms and protocols currently affects existing settlements as well as new
housing developments. The consensus is that in many cases social work must be
undertaken by municipal governments, with financial resources provided if necessary
by the federal and state governments. However, in order to shoulder this responsibility,
local governments need to be adequately prepared. Since the shortage of financial
resources afflicts the large majority of municipal authorities in Brazil, funds for social
work must be included together with those for housing production. This is particularly
the case in larger cities. Steps must be taken for the local prefectures to be involved at
all stages of the social work related to housing production and these autohrities should
be prepared, when necessary, to provide counterpart funding.
Social work undertaken in the pre-and post-occupation stages of major housing
developments can contribute substantially to achieving an enhanced measure of
sustainability from the point of view of the maintenance of the developments. It can also
be a source of encouragement for residents to remain in situ. Housing is a process which
does not begin or end when families enter their houses and apartments for the first time.
The involvement of families before the building is constructed helps them to commit to
the many processes involved in housing production. It also facilitates social control visà-vis the quality of the final product. Such involvement can also lead to the formation of
close neighbourhood groups that can benefit the living conditions of all the residents
and be a useful additional tool for sustaining a new housing development.
Within the criteria for defining priorities for housing finance it is important to pay
attention to the prior organisation of beneficiary groups in order to avoid the new
housing units being raffled off to claimants. It is worth adding that the post-occupation
stage of a development is the result of a process involving the various steps taken earlier
on at the pre-occupation stage. The purpose of post-occupation involvement is not
confined to condominium management, but involves strengthening and encouraging
good neighbourly behaviour and community organisation. This approach can help to
prevent families from feeling isolated, to care for the equipment and amenities installed
in the development such as community centres and, finally, to stimulate the continued
development of a broader process involving residents´ assertion of their rights.
Support by residents´ associations, community organisations and NGOs can assist
proper management of the neighbourhood and associated amenities. Post-occupation
activities can also help families to build independent lives, assist them to access
different public services and benefit from social policies. It can also help to generate a
better understanding of the reasons why beneficiary families sell or cede their homes to
third parties.
However, it has to be admitted that social work at the post-occupation stage of the
major housing developments is far from being a panacea. It is no remedy for the many
difficulties involved in running social projects. Nor does not resolve, for example, the
challenge of designing good urban and architectural projects in the first place. In this
respect, it is important that the approach to planning, and commitment to the quality of
the building projects, must not be compromised due to pressures to quickly reduce the
housing deficit.
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2.5. The challenge of integrating major housing developments into the urban
environment by increasing the supply of suitable urbanised land.
One of the critical issues most intensely discussed by workshop participants was the
acquisition of serviced land in suitable localities, benefiting from basic urban
infrastructure and earmarked for the construction of large social housing developments.
Owing to the high cost of urban land, housing production for low-income groups
continues apace on the city fringes, generating sprawling settlements with low rates of
sustainability and poor prospects for integrating fully with the existing urban fabric.
In Brazil, most housing for low income families consists of squatter settlements
generally characterised by different degrees of precarious legal status and service
provision and constructed on land which is either not urbanised or is urbanised only
partially. In general, urbanisation of such land takes place in a gradual piecemeal way in
the wake of its occupation by shanties erected by poor families.
The identification of serviced land suitable for building a properly-designated housing
development results from the activities of formal market agents. These operators, often
in league with the public authorities, are predominantly interested in providing housing
for higher income social groups. In such cases urbanisation of the land takes place
before it is occupied.
In order to ensure that large housing developments (benefiting from the prior supply of
serviced urban land endowed with basic infrastructure) are integrated into the urban
environment proper, the different types of available housing finance need to be carefully
reviewed. Funding arrangements should ideally cover the costs of the building land,
together with the costs of all the urban facilities required by the future housing
developments (services, amenities, basic urban infrastructure, etc). Furthermore, a
proportion of the housing units must be compulsorily earmarked as social housing, for
occupation by medium and low income families subsidised by government. In the case
of housing developments targetted at extremely low income families (below 3 minimum
salaries) subsidies must be included for installing services, amenities and basic urban
infrastructure.
2.6. The challenge of integrating major housing developments into the urban
environment by ensuring access to commercial establishments, services, amenities
and basic urban infrastructure.
A concern addressed by virtually all the workshop participants was the need to ensure
that the building of large housing developments is in line with the planned growth of
cities. Housing production is not simply a question of constructing housing units. It
involves generating cities and neighbourhoods with appropriate urban environments.
However, it is often the case that housing developments need to be very large for
reasons of economic and commercial viability. The construction of 3 million homes
planned under the PMCMV 1 and 2 will require an expansion of urban land in many
Brazilian cities. Given that this expansion process is already occurring at an quickening
rate throughout Brazil, it is important that it is undertaken in a planned manner under
strict local government control. Local governments need to pay attention to the
following:
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I. An improved interrelationship between housing, land and social policies and
programmes involving the construction of roads and highways, community equipments
etc;
II. Adequate provision of services, amenities and basic urban infrastructure (education,
health, leisure, culture and, especially, public transport) in order to make it possible to
construct large housing developments and simultaneously generate thriving, inclusive
and equitable cities;
III. Tenure and title regularisation of large plots and other areas of land earmarked for
housing development, to include resolution of problems with the Land Registry Offices
and Environmental Licensing authorities;
IV. Connectivity with areas offering good employment opportunities, economic
prospects and access to consumer facilities.
The above are challenges facing local governments. The latter will need to call for
support from the federal and state governments, given that many large housing
developments are generally installed in locations in cities which are already woefully
short of appropriate services, amenities and basic urban infrastructure.
In many cities the above four guidelines are constrained by the serious financial
problems of municipal governments which, in addition to being short of funds, possess
low technical and institutional capacities - both of which limit the prospects for
investing in the urban space, and in effect act as a brake on municipal activities insofar
as urban planning, regulation and housing management are concerned.
The shortcomings of municipal planning and urban management are particularly evident
when the need arises for applying urban policy instruments to develop social housing in
downtown areas. In many cities, especially the large ones, housing development is
unable to prosper on account of the high costs of land and of the existence of other
properties in such areas, including buildings occupying the more deteriorated zones. In
addition to high land and property prices, housing production in central areas faces
another significant obstacle: the fact that few Brazilian construction companies are
prepared to work with "retrofit" to adapt existing buildings for housing purposes.
Good integration of large housing developments into the existing urban fabric, allied to
the building of social housing in central urban areas, can help to counteract
unsustainable road-dependent urban development, which afflicts the majority of
Brazilian cities and is the root cause of a series of negative impacts on the environment
and public health such as air pollution, excessive soil impermeability and problems of
urban drainage.
When the installation of a large housing development on the city fringes (such as Vila
Flora in Sumaré) cannot be avoided, it is important to ensure that the development has
access to a main highway connecting it to more consolidated urban areas. Such a
highway could also be a useful site for a variety of economic activities, including in the
environs of the housing development itself. The challenge of urban integration of large
housing developments can also focus solutions on other aspects of the housing backlog
in Brazilian cities, painfully represented by the mass of precarious settlements of
different types such as favelas, unauthorised and clandestine plots, delapidated housing
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complexes, groups of stilt shacks, converted tenement buildings etc. It is often the case
that the new housing developments are located near to one or more of these types of
informal settlements.
2.7. The challenge of integrating major housing developments into the urban
environment by ensuring that the federal, state and municipal governments, as
well as private agents, undertake joint actions.
It is particularly important to engage all the country´s city mayors in a broad nationwide
debate focused on the economic viability and urban, environmental and architectural
quality of the major housing developments which are being, or will be, built in their
areas. Mayors of cities currently in receipt of PMCMV 1 funds must be especially
involved. At the same time, the proposal for the Ministry of Cities to train the relevant
public and private agents in the preparation of production strategies related to largescale housing developments needs to be pursued. As already mentioned, these strategies
must aim to ensure the urban, environmental and architectural quality and diversity of
the future developments.
As a prelude to the debate and training activities, it is vital to define and place in clear
order of priority the various roles of the different agents involved in the housing
development processes. These include the federal government, state governments,
municipal governments, private business sectors, the financial sector, public services
concessionaires, nonprofit social entities, plot subdividers etc. The main thrust should
be to draw up agreements on housing provision between the federal, state and municipal
governments. It is absolutely crucial, for example, to expect municipal prefectures to
provide full subsidies to meet the housing needs of poor families on incomes of up to 3
minimum salaries.
It is also necessary to define how state and municipal governments should proceed with
respect to medium and long term planning, the regulation of housing development
processes and the actual production and distribution of housing units, especially for low
income populations. These governments must work together to plan the building of
large housing developments, ensuring cohesion and coordination between the various
master plans, housing plans, social policies, public works and city planning
programmes. The overall goal should be for state and municipal authorities to
concentrate on:
I. Regulating urban land prices by employing a variety of instruments, including those
set forth in the City Statute;
II. Adopting instruments to make it possible for the authorities to access urban land for
social housing developments e.g. appropriation of certain properties located in Special
Social Interest Zones, as in Santo André (SP), to defray outstanding property debts to
local authorities, and the use of other urban policy instruments as described in the City
Statute;
III. Supplying urbanised land endowed with basic sanitation infrastructure installed by
state or municipal agencies or by private concessions;
IV. Responding to a variety of social demands in addition to existing housing needs;
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V. Forging a link between housing provision and employment opportunities;
VI. Seeking to lessen the impacts of large housing developments on existing and future
social demands;
VII. Controlling the further spread of precarious and informal urban settlements in order
to avert the formation of new slums, especially in risk areas;
VIII. Undertaking land tenure regularisation and urbanisation of existing precarious,
informal settlements;
IX. Encouraging effective liaison between the different sectors and secretariats dealing
with public policies, with a view to ensuring that the necessary urban amenities are
supplied for occupants of the large housing developments, especially with regard to the
provision of public transport facilities;
X. Considering the connections, adaptations and modifications needed to upgrade
existing and future road and street patterns;
XI. Studying the combinations of financial resources provided by the central, state and
municipal governments with a view to achieving the most appropriate housing
solutions. In this regard, the National Congress must approve the Constitutional
Amendment Bill (PEC), currently under scrutiny, referring to decent housing provision.
It is also vital to take full advantage of the investments which will be made in
preparation for the World Cup (Brazil-wide) and the Olympic Games (in Rio de
Janeiro) in order to leverage suitable housing development;
XII. Considering the different types of housing solutions;
XIII. Formulating strategies to meet the requirements of families who are already
registered as future housing beneficiaries and those involving the "closed demands"
specified in advance by the authorities.
Municipal prefectures need to define the groups which will be housed in each of the
developments (“closed demand”) and help to maintain the housing developments, in
cooperation with the occupants themselves.
Private market agents are able to produce large housing developments, such as those
built by the Rossi company in Santa Luzia (Minas Gerais). These were based on master
plans drawn up before the commencement of building work and contained delivery
schedules and deadlines reflecting the absorptive capacity of the market, including the
prospects for marketing the future housing units. Building techniques obviously
influence construction timeframes and must be also taken into account when planning
the different execution stages. Plans for installing commercial and services activities
must be considered at every stage of the process.
With regard to the already-mentioned roles to be played by government and commercial
builders, the housing production model needs to be broadened in order to ensure that the
public authorities remain responsible for planning and regulating in cases where private
sector operators are committed to undertaking the actual works. The attributions of the
latter are of course more complex, especially with regard to supplying the housing
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needs of lower income families. In this case, it is perhaps important to define new roles
and include new stakeholders in the housing production chain.
Municipal authorities, with autonomous status within the Brazilian Federation but with
limited financial, technical and institutional capacity, continue to encounter difficulties
to coordinate the different sectors concerned with public policies, to regulate the land
and property market and to oversee the building of large housing developments, in order
to ensure that these successfully fold into the existing city environment. Given that the
urban planning and management capacities of municipal prefectures are frequently
under strain on account of rapid population growth, the quality of the finished projects
often risks being below standard.
Demographic pressures go hand-in-hand with the political and social urgency to employ
the large amount of financial resources currently earmarked by the federal government
for investment in housing production over the short term. The result is that it is now
virtually impossible to wait for good planning and urban management procedures and
processes to take root in city administrations before they can undertake major housing
schemes in a more measured fashion. In these circumstances local governments need to
be increasingly flexible with regard to integrating their overall urban planning processes
with plans for undertaking new housing projects. The fact is that in many places such
flexibility is non-existent, and formal urban planning requirements suffer as a result.
Furthermore, it is necessary to define procedures for the agents responsible for
providing basic urban infrastructure and amenities (mainly those supplying basic
sanitation, services and public transport infrastructure). The activities of private sector
agents need to integrate with all the processes involved in feasibility studies, project
design and execution of social housing developments. Advance planning of services,
amenities and urban infrastructure for the city as a whole helps to determine the
locations where new housing developments should be built. This approach must also
incorporate the full range of social policies (employment and income generation,
education, health, etc).
Note that regardless of PMCMV 1 having made progress on the urban and
environmental licensing front, approvals for large housing developments still suffer
from bureaucratic delays. Municipal prefectures need to award priority to speeding up
the urban and environmental licensing of large housing developments in order to meet
the demand from very low income families (receiving up to 3 minimum salaries),
following the example of Campinas. Greater flexibility and transparency in the
relationship between private property agents and local authority technical staff are
needed to ensure that the licensing processes required at the different phases of building
large housing developments are pursued in a timely manner. The licensing process
should also involve negotiations between private stakeholders and the public authorities,
focussed for example on possible counterpart arrangements and any mitigating and
adaptive measures to be taken.
2.8. The challenge of monitoring and evaluating the results and impacts occasioned
by the building of major housing developments
It is necessary to invest in a system for monitoring, controlling and evaluating both
small and large housing developments. The system should be capable of covering the
following:
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I. Access to services, equipments and urban infrastructure, mainly in the large housing
developments used for accommodating families receiving up to three minimum salaries;
II. The welfare of people living in the housing developments and of workers employed
in building the developments;
III.The jobs generated in the building and post-occupation of the housing developments.
Monitoring, control and evaluation of housing developments must be done sequentially,
taking account of the impacts of building several contiguous developments in the same
area.
It is important to use the results of this M & E exercise to enhance the image of large
social housing developments in order to help destigmatise low-income accommodation.
3. Contributions by the international participants to the discussions on major
housing developments
The workshop was attended by representatives from South Africa, Chile, Colombia, El
Salvador, Spain and Mexico, in addition to Brazil. Representatives hailed from a variety
of government bodies, the private sector and social organisations concerned with
housing. In general the contributions of the international participants consisted of
accounts of their experiences of undertaking large housing developments in their
respective countries. The accounts by the Colombian, Spanish and Mexican
representatives were of particular note, given that these involved serviced land
acquisition strategies for establishing virtually complete residential neighbourhoods
based upon agreements between the public authorities and the private sector. However it
was not clear whether such neighbourhoods were earmarked for lower income families
(probably not).
3.1. Contributions by South Africa
South Africa's main current challenge with regard to urban and housing policy is how to
combat social and spatial segregation between whites and blacks. Housing and urban
policies also need to take account of the interaction between national, regional and local
planning processes and pay particular attention to the different situations of large and
small cities. Urban restructuring, while of local importance, needs to be formulated in a
wider regional context.
Local governments in South Africa need funding to meet their responsibilities for
improving human settlements. Financial resources are needed for people to improve and
upgrade their homes. A specific fund is needed for this purpose. In the townships,
housing needs to be considered as much more than a roof over people´s heads. It is vital
to seek to create an environment of good neighbourliness.
Reference was made to the "Cosmo City" pilot project aimed at integrating housing
areas for different social groups by offering the basic tools for upgrading human
development, generating jobs and income in order to improve local economic
conditions. Cosmo City is a private development installed on government land by
means of a private-public partnership (PPP). More detailed information on this pilot
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project can be found in the PowerPoint files of the South African lecturers and in the
promotional film presented during the workshop.
A number of questions were raised about the South African experiences. Were local
governments genuinely generating urban growth despite their lack of much-needed
resources? Does adding value to urban land according to market forces genuinely meet
the housing needs of the poorest?
3.2. Contributions by Chile
An important point arising from the discussion of Chile's housing policy was that the
state needed to adopt subsidy policies to satisfy the social demands of the population
sectors excluded from the private housing market.
With respect to the provision of serviced land for housing developments, the Chilean
approach is to put government land at the disposal of housing committees formed by
current and future beneficiaries. In addition, a type of housing subsidy, which makes a
distinction between the price of land and the price of housing, has been adopted. This is
a kind of "localisation subsidy" which varies according to the location of the land and
ease of access to services, amenities and urban infrastructure etc. Improvement grants
are also available for householders.
An important measure adopted by Chile's housing policy which contributes to acquiring
serviced land suitable for social housing has been the approval of national legislation
determining that 5% of the units in every housing development must be earmarked for
so-called "protected" social housing, thereby avoiding a situation where entire pieces of
land are appropriated on free market terms for building homes exclusively for higher
income groups.
A further interesting measure adopted under Chile's housing policy for acquiring
serviced land for housing is the compulsory upscaling of the supply of sanitation
services to areas earmarked for housing purposes. The problem is that this increases the
costs of housing projects, which have to be borne by the purchasers. In Chile the
provision of basic sanitation services is undertaken by specialist private firms which
dominate this particular market and which do not operate throughout all the national
territory. 38.1% of Chile is not covered by such services. Some housing developments
have their own sanitation systems. The aforementioned companies are entitled to
provide sewage and related services in rural areas provided they assume the obligation
to maintain the quality of such services.
In Chile, social participation is involved in upgrading neighbourhoods. Participation is
driven by community leaders (young people, women etc), generally engaged in
discussing policy approaches in, and on behalf of, a particular neighbourhood, by
neighbourhood development councils. This participatory approach results in the
formulation of "neighbourhood contracts". Given community scepticism about
government involvement, the above “contracts” set out to define what is needed to
improve neighbourhood conditions. Two types of contracts are involved: a works
contract and a social contract. The first consists of a memorandum of commitment
signed by the government and representatives of society, while the latter contains
cooperation strategies governing the necessary commitments to be undertaken by the
public authorities, working alongside the residents. Without participation by residents
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the Chilean representatives made it clear that sustainability of a particular
neighbourhood over the longer term would be impossible.
A number of questions were raised about the Chilean experiences. Who was responsible
for awarding the sanitation services concessions to the various private operators? What
role did the municipal authorities play in the supply of sanitation services and the
building of new housing developments? Who was responsible for planning city growth?
3.3. Contributions by Colombia
The Colombian experience focused on two main points:
1. The employment of a range of urban policy and land management instruments to
undertake both “partial” plans and large urban projects involving housing production;
and
II. The adoption of social communication mechanisms to inform society about the
processes involved in housing production.
With regard to applying urban land management instruments and distribution of the
costs and benefits of urbanisation, special attention is paid in Colombia to designing
partial plans for erecting buildings in "intra-urban" spaces. These eventually form urban
projects negotiated between government and the private property sector on the basis of
the application of instruments which detail the various benefits and liabilities relevant to
each.
The partial plans contain pre-configurations of future buildings, describe the natural
features that require preserving, identify available public spaces and pay particular
attention to planning the plots with a view to taking advantage of economies of scale. In
Medellin, 30 partial plans have proceeded, all of them undertaken by commercial
builders in conjunction with the local public authorities.
Partial plans necessarily involve property owners, investors and the public authorities in
"compulsory negotiation", based upon the principle of equity regarding the distribution
of the liabilities and gains linked to planned urban renewal. The installation of urban
infrastructure in the peripheral areas of the partial plans is the dual responsibility of
property owners and the public authority. In the fringe areas, as elsewhere, both are
required to observe the aforementioned principle of equity.
Another feature of urban and housing policy in Colombia which involves joint
application of land management instruments and the fair distribution of urbanisation
costs and benefits is the concept of the macro project. These projects were described as
comprising a "set of technically defined and evaluated actions targeted at the execution
of a large scale operation and which can impact on the entire urban spatial structure and
guide the general growth of the city" (Article 114 of Law 388/1997, known as the Land
Development Law).
Regarding the above macro projects, the central (national) government has to shoulder
greater responsibilities than the other levels of government. The projects themselves are
basically a response to the inability of many municipal authorities to provide suitable
housing. In general, municipal governments do not use land value capture (“plus valia”)
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mechanisms. Of the 60 macro projects, 12 are located in areas of environmental interest.
Concern exists to improve the balance between the projects and their natural
surroundings and to resolve environmental impacts through better urban design. In a
number of cases environmental buffers have been established.
In the housing finance arena, subsidies provided by the national government are
supplemented by local authority grants to enable people to purchase homes.
With regard to social participation in the housing context, the so-called "Habitat
Centres" have been created with the aim of assisting individual families to participate in
the entire production process - from the planning stage of a housing development
through to its actual execution. Support for these centres is provided by NGOs. A kind
of "padriño" or "padriña”(sponsor) is made responsible for providing direct support to
each family under this scheme.
Furthermore, with a view to improving communication between the government and
society in housing policy issues, radio and television programmes have been created to
channel information about housing developments and provide a platform for the
discussion of problems regarding services, housing finance, etc. Future beneficiaries
and residents of the housing developments put their questions to these TV and radio
programmes, which are dealt with "live". A magazine is published carrying
advertisements for new and second-hand properties available for sale in a kind of
secondary market for subsidised properties. These advertisements also appear on a
dedicated Internet site.
Colombia's experience raises important questions. How to achieve a fair balance
between federal and local government intervention? What needs to be regulated and
what does not need to be regulated in the land market? How to strike a balance between
planning and improvisation?
3.4. Contributions by El Salvador
El Salvador is seeking to implement a housing program similar to Brazil's PMCMV 1.
Concern exists with regard to developing production and value chains (including
public/private “hybrid” chains) for delivering affordable low-cost housing and
producing economically viable and sustainable housing projects in El Salvador´s urban
areas. The various elements of the production and value chains relate to the provision of
serviced land, installation of services, amenities and urban infrastructure, the
manufacturing and sale of building materials, property marketing, the creation of good
community facilities and ensuring the economic sustainability of housing developments.
El Salvador's experiences raise certain questions. For example, what is the social
production of housing? What can be considered to be the fair shares of housing
production to be shouldered by government, the private market and social sectors
organised in not-for-profit entities?
3.5. Contributions by Spain
In Spain, particularly in Madrid, housing strategies between 1990 and 2010 were based
on the Urban Infrastructure and Services Clusters (“Consórcios Urbanísticos”). Each of
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these clusters possesses a specific organisational structure headed by an Administrative
Council, with a separate Management Body responsible for overseeing the legal,
management and technical (works) aspects of housing production. The Consórcios aim
to provide a link between different sectors of the public administration and the
construction sector, financial agents and private property market practitioners.
According to this strategy the land agents intermediate the activities of other agents
engaged in housing production, and contribute to coordinating administrative structures
and approving the legal bases for regulating urban land development and marketing
processes.
The land agents act together with land developers in schemes in which the latter
subdivide and construct the basic infrastructure prior to land being approved for
building purposes. While production of the serviced land is separate from actual
housing development, both agents have to work closely with the different branches of
the public administration to ensure the success of a particular cluster.
In Madrid, the Consórcios have been involved in 13 schemes. These have generated
40,000 housing units (of which 30,000 are social housing units) located on a total of 4
million square meters of land. The homes produced currently account for between 3%
and 4% of Madrid's housing stock. As well as producing large housing developments,
the Consórcios also undertake urbanisation and land title regularisation operations. Note
that the housing developments vary greatly in terms of unit type, price and occupancy
density.
The Spaniards have also made efforts to upgrade existing neighbourhoods, to ensure
participation by social movements and trade unions in the housing development
processes and to encourage improved interministerial liaison.
3.6. Contributions by Mexico
Mexico's experience is based on a system of well-structured housing finance operated
inter-alia by the Federal Mortgage Company (Sociedad Hipotecaria Federal). The
financing arrangements operated under the system are broadly the following:
- Short, medium and long term credit facilities aimed respectively at extending and
improving homes, self-help building, acquisition of new or used homes;
- Bridging loans for housing construction.
The SHF system also includes funding mechanisms to cover insurance and provide
housing credit guarantees.
The key elements of Mexico´s strategy for producing large housing developments are
the Integral Sustainable Urban Development Operations (DUIS) financed jointly by a
capital fund, by intermediary financial institutions and by the Federal Mortgage
Company on the basis of trustee arrangements.
The DUIS are used in "wholly planned development areas which contribute to the
regional and urban planning of the states and municipalities and promote more orderly,
fair and sustainable urban development". These operations are regarded as an "engine
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for regional development where housing, infrastructure, services, equipment,
commercial establishments, education, health, industry, leisure and other factors, can
form the basis for the New Regional Development Hubs". They also involve "mixed
projects which can be integrated into existing urban centres and in which the federal,
state and municipal governments, together with developers and landowners, have a
stake".
Furthermore, the DUIS approach foresees the creation of "new development hubs under
the aegis of the New Cities (Nuevas Ciudades) initiative involving large areas of land,
and focused on large and medium-sized developers, state and municipal governments".
Plans are also afoot to undertake "projects to maximise the use of intra-urban spaces,
through intelligent redensification schemes aimed at small and medium-sized
developers, municipal and state governments". It is also planned to introduce "projects
for generating land serviced with appropriate infrastructure by developers of large areas
(macro-plots) of interest to medium and small developers, state and municipal
governments".
The agents involved in the DUIS can make useful contributions to reducing the costs of
installing infrastructure in housing developments. They are familiar with the functioning
of the licensing processes and the environments where housing is to be constructed.
They are also able to supply serviced land for building by commercial companies in
conformity with the requirements and norms defined by the public authorities. In the
event of state or municipal governments not possessing the capacity to operate and/or
invest in urban services and infrastructure, concessions are awarded to "land
developers".
The main concerns of the DUIS are the following:
- Water management and the use of alternative, renewable and clean sources for energy
generation;
- Reducing automobile use, shortening distances, generating jobs near to housing
development areas and encouraging pedestrian and bicycle transport;
- Reducing the costs of infrastructure in order to lessen the overall costs of housing
developments;
- Organising residents of housing developments to undertake condominium
management and assist in the maintenance of the properties;
- Adoption of technical innovations in the housing developments by involving experts
in alternative technologies with a view to contributing to enhanced environmental
sustainability.
The key points raised at the workshop with regard to Mexico´s housing development
strategies were the following :
- Loss by the public authorities of quality control variables in respect of housing
development;
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- Establishment of a “land bank” by private housing developers who have bought land
stocks for exploiting over the next 10 to 15 years, thereby determining the future
scenario for housing investments;
- Lack of control in relation to the location of housing developments, indicating the
absence of a comprehensive view of housing needs beyond the mere provision of
housing units, and a failure to take into account the totality of services, amenities and
urban infrastructure required;
- Priority awarded to generating large numbers of housing units rather than to the fitness
for purpose of the accommodation produced ;
- Failure to take into account changes in family lifestyles and circumstances;
- Lack of government coordination of the housebuilding process and the preponderance
of market mechanisms in the housing development processes;
- Lack of a clear methodology governing social and popular participation in the
processes involved in designing housing projects, as well as the absence of social work
initiatives at the pre-occupation stage aimed at engaging popular involvement at the
decision-making level rather than considering future residents as a source of cheap
labour.
The Mexican participants had the following comments in response to the points raised
in the course of workshop discussions:
- The need for popular involvement from the beginning of the planning and design
stage, with consideration given to forming groups of future residents in advance of
delivery of the new housing units. This could contribute to the adoption of solutions
more in tune with the real needs of beneficiaries;
- The need for a type of localisation subsidy to facilitate access to urban land most
suitable for housing development. If the land to be bought were nearer to the city centre
the price would obviously be higher, in which case more generous subsidies would need
to be provided so that people not only had access to housing but also to the amenities of
the city proper.
4. Follow-up
Immediately after the workshop the Technical Meeting held on 17 September 2010
decided that follow-up actions should be taken as follows:
- To mount an event or organise a working group to discuss the parameters and criteria
for the physical analysis of the projects;
- To analyse the contractual arrangements for large housing developments in the South
and Southeast macro-regions of Brazil, with a view to ensuring good outcomes for the
proposed housing solutions;
- To design a legally-binding contractual instrument which would be more effective
than a mere protocol of intentions, in order to impart a sense of responsibility to
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municipal authorities regarding the quality of housing projects. This instrument would
need to take into account regional diversity and contain different rules for housing
aimed at families on up to 3 minimum salaries and those on higher incomes.
- The creation of a Management Group within Brazil´s Civil Household (Casa Civil)
which would bring together the different sectors and areas related to housing
development and other stakeholders. This group might eventually limit the scope of its
activities to a minimum number of large housing development projects. The
management group could also serve to encourage coordinated action between the
various ministries (education, health, public security etc). The objectives of the group
would reflect the conditions and parameters for the large housing developments being
studied by the CEF since 2009 (to be used for social housing). These objectives could
be: (i) to define the parameters and minimum requirements, undertaking negotiations
with local governments and private sector agents; (ii) to employ joint federal policies to
provide the equipments and services needed to be developed alongside actual housing
provision;
- The creation of (Regional) Committees to analyse large housing projects. These
committees would comprise representatives of the CEF, state and municipal
governments, etc. The committees should be in a position to define compensatory
measures regarding large housing developments;
- Technical staff from the CEF to undertake inspections of areas of land for building
large housing developments;
- The creation of a working group to revise the guidelines and operational mechanisms
with regard to social work. The latter should be expanded to include: (i) better
understanding of the urban dimension; (ii) better municipal liaison between the different
public policy sectors; and (iii) activities to be undertaken jointly with community
organisations;
- The creation of a working group (consultant to be contracted) with a view to proposing
mechanisms for producing serviced land for building housing developments based upon
Brazilian and international experiences (Betânia Alfonsin?);
- To organise a technical meeting with Betânia Alfonsin to reflect on the international
experiences regarding serviced land for building housing developments;
- To hold a meeting or organise a workshop with the municipal mayors at CEF
headquarters ;
- To organise a workshop with CEF and Ministry of Cities technical staff on 28-29
September 2010 in order to consolidate an Action Plan incorporating the above followup points;
- To broaden the debate on large housing developments by including the academic and
research sectors.
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