Building goes from rundown slum to international award winner
Edifício União had its eight floors occupied in the 80's by 72 families—nearly twice its maximum capacity.
The occupation of a derelict building in the district of Bom Retiro, downtown São Paulo, is among the few cases in the area in which the right to housing has prevailed.
Abandoned before its construction was finished, Edifício União, as the building is called, had its eight floors occupied in the 80's by 72 families—nearly twice its maximum capacity. After the occupation process began, people could be found living even in the elevator shaft. Threatened by excessive weight and a fragile framework, Edifício União was at risk of collapse.
Legal assistant Rosemeire Mori, 50, has lived in the building for 26 years. She says a former apartment manager used to sell spaces to newly arriving families. “Many didn't pay anything, others paid various prices. Bit by bit, [the building] was being filled up to the eighth floor,” she recounts.
With no dividing walls in any of the eight stories, newcomers had to start building apartments and small rooms for themselves after their own needs. Life standards were low, and trash and rubble were strewn around everywhere.
There was no electricity, water, or sewage system. “To take a shower, I had to go to the balcony—the only place we could draw water from. I had to squat so the people standing at the bus stop opposite wouldn't see me,” Rosemeire says.
The first sources of energy were installed in clandestinity. “It was a piece of wire connected here directly from the utility pole, and along with it came several other wires, one for each apartment. The transformer would explode nearly everyday, and the neighbors would come over to swear at us. The street ran out of power and an electrician came shortly afterwards to bring it back. And that's what happened for some years, with neighbors wanting to kill us,” she reports.
According to hairstylist Marlene Aparecida da Silva, 51, who has lived in Edifício União for 25 years, the seedy appearance of the place appealed to the prejudices of law enforcement agents. “The police used to show up whenever something bad happened in Bom Retiro,” she notes.
Antônio Francisco de Lima reports that a large number of people appeared with forged documents claiming to be the owners of Edifício União.
Twenty six years ago, Antônio Francisco de Lima, 61, from the northeastern state of Maranhão, says there used to be quite a stir in the early years. He reports that a large number of people appeared with forged documents claiming to be the owners of Edifício União. “It was always a commotion, but we went to the notary's office and found out that [the papers] were not genuine,” Antônio recalls, adding that he used to pack up his belongings every week for fear of being evicted unexpectedly.
A mother of three who recently divorced from her husband, Rosemeire says she moved to Edifício União carrying only a mattress and a bag of clothes. Her rapport with the new neighbors kept her from thinking about finding a new place to live, as they helped take care of her children while she was out working.
A school belonging to Legião da Boa Vontade, a charity near the building, was also crucial. Most of the children from the building were taken in full time by the institute. “It relieved parents from their anxiety as they were able to leave in the morning and come back at night knowing their children were being taken good care of. That kept us here, because, if we left, where could we send our children to school? Who would look after them while we worked?” she says. Today, Rosemeire's children are in college.
A new beginning
The history of Edifício União took a new direction in 2003, when Sociology Professor Maria Ruth Amaral de Sampaio, former director at the Architecture and Urbanism School of São Paulo University (USP), came across the building while sauntering through the neighborhood where she lived. As it happened, the place became the subject of her PhD thesis.
The first change was the reduction in the number of residents, aimed at lowering the risk of collapse. After a series of interviews, Maria Ruth realized that some of the families wished to return to their home states in the North and Northeast. A deal was reached with city officials, and money was provided for their return.
There were also people disturbing the peace of the place. “To start with, there were drug trafficking and prostitution in there, but also decent, hard-working families. I called up a meeting and luckily the most critical people were the ones who accepted the money to leave. The number went from 64 to 42 people who still live there,” says the professor.
Also, because the pillars on the first floor were corroded and posed a risk to the building's framework, they had to be rebuilt. In order to do that, Maria Ruth took engineers and students from the USP Polytechnic School, who guided the dwellers through the renovation. “For a year, the engineers offered training to residents. […] Since it was on weekends only, the project lasted for quite some time,” she remarks.
The USP Institute of Technological Research had recommended the demolition of a portion of the eighth floor, which threatened to collapse. It was carried out by the residents themselves, “one of the walls was wobbly, and we started removing the bricks one by one, so the wall wouldn't fall over to the other side. We did a total cleanup. We brought down whatever trash there was, which amounted to some four or five trucks' worth of rubble and splintered wood,” Rosemeire notes.
Collective usucaption
Despite all the assistance they received and the improvement in the people's life standards, a specter was still roaming around: replevin. “That had always kept us concerned. What if we fix the place up, do the plastering, along with a bunch of other things, just to have a judge come and kick us out? The priority, even before the reform started, had always been the writ [of replevin],” Rosemeire declared.
Residents searched for help from the Gaspar Garcia Human Rights Center. In 2002, lawyers filed the first claim of usucaption (the right to property after a long period of occupation) for each one of the families. Chances are higher after dwellers renovate the place, and Edifício União is a case in point. Also, the process is made all the easier by the fact that the former owner is dead and heirless.
The families formed a commission aimed at paying all of the building's outstanding bills, like electric energy. Professor Maria Ruth contributed by donating electricity boxes, and the residents raised funds to hire an electrician to design a full power system to Edifício União, in which each resident has its own separate electricity bill.
The residents went as far as to pay all the IPTU (tax on urban property) overdue, which dated back to the 80's. The total debt was divided into installments and the monthly payments outstanding currently add up to 34. Water bills were also brought up to date.
Legal assistant Rosemeire Mori, 50, has lived in the building for 26 years.
In 2005, the Gaspar Garcia Center filed a second usucaption claim—this time collectively, on behalf of all the residents. To the families' relief, ten years later, on January 19, the claim was granted—the only case for a building in the entire country, according to Thiago Santos do Nascimento, lawyer at the Gaspar Garcia Center.
In 2008, the building's renovation project won the Deutsche Bank Urban Age Award, given by the London School of Economics and Political Science, which celebrates creative solutions and initiatives that benefit communities and local residents in urban environments. Edifício União competed with 133 other projects and won $100 thousand.
The prize is currently on a bank and will be used in further renovating the building itself—the residents' commission has not made a decision on whether it should use the money to repair the stairs, revamp the façade or install new elevators.
Translated by Fabrício Ferreira
Fonte: Building goes from rundown slum to international award winner
