12,000 took it to the streets of Sao Paulo in Brazil in solidarity with the Homeless Workers’ Movement, to defend housing as a human right. Hundreds of thousands of poor workers have been deprived by their homes in the past years, a process accelerated prior to the World Cup; people were evicted at gun point so that FIFA could create its facilities. The militarized gentrification of the poor workers’ communities (favelas) has added to the speculations of the real estate industry which have caused an unbearable increase of rents and housing prices. Thousands of workers have become homeless as a result, and they can no longer pay their rent from their wages.
The fight for the right to housing, by guaranteeing the basic rights of human beings by the state, brought together representatives of the judiciary, of the Academy, Church, political parties, activists from various social movements, and trade unions.
The demonstration began with an assembly and moved on to the Public Ministry of São Paulo (MP-SP).
Last month the MTST suffered a brutal attack from some sectors of the media. The MP-SP alleged favoritism to the MTST in relation to housing policies in SP. While social movements have accessed only 2% of public resources allocated to the program my house my life (MCMV) contractors took more than 98% of the resources of the program.
Contractors have been the target of harsh criticism of social movements and of respected research institutes, such as the FAU-USP and the IPPUR-UFRJ, the low quality of projects carried out, often are compared to known housing policies of former bankrupt BNH, implemented during the military dictatorship.
Guilherme Boulos, one of the representatives of MTST, initiating the demonstration said, “We have no problem if there’s investigation, because we have nothing to fear. But we want that same Public Ministry to investigate the real estate speculation, too. We’re taking complaints to MP 7 to investigate the real estate speculation in Sao Paulo. “
Between 2008 and 2014 the prices of real estate in Sao Paulo increased by more than 200%, causing a severe housing crisis, not only in Sao Paulo but in several cities in the country.
Below are some photos taken during the acts by fellow independent media and companions of the MTST.