Housing as a service: inputs for formulation, management and implementation of a rental housing policy in São Paulo

• Grant number: 23/10276-5
• Support Opportunities: Research Grants - Research in Public Policies
• Start date: April 01, 2024
• End date: September 30, 2026
• Field of knowledge: Applied Social Sciences - Urban and Regional Planning
• Principal Investigator: Paula Freire Santoro
• Grantee: Paula Freire Santoro
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Arquitetura e Urbanismo (FAU). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil
• Associated researchers: Daniela Perre Rodrigues ; Isadora de Andrade Guerreiro ; Maria Rita de Sá Brasil Horigoshi
• Associated scholarship(s): 24/12846-6 - São Paulo Social Rental Program, BP.MS; 24/10145-0 - International experience in rental housing public policies, BP.PD; 24/14285-1 - Case studies of rental housing policies, BP.TT; 24/07213-4 - Design of the Social Rental Program in São Paulo, BP.TT

Abstract

The global housing policies context points to an important and growing role for rent, opposing the housing history of Latin America and Brazil, which was historically anchored in models of home ownership. São Paulo City has had a social rent housing policy since 2002, which requires a structural reformulation of its management processes and instruments. It has as scale of a pilot project and is unstructured, implying comprehensive reformulation, that's why it's considered a Public Policy under Construction (POC). This public management project FAPESP intends to produce inputs for the formulation of a (social) rental public policy for the Municipality of São Paulo, by reviewing the institutional arrangement, the regulatory and management instruments; promote improvements and innovations in the previous and ongoing policy; enable gains in scale; take care of the evictions and involuntarily displacement processes, understanding social rent as a public housing service, provided by the State, but also in partnerships, having the public interest as a structuring logic. This new conception is structured around four axes that should guide the new design: production of new units (refurbishment, construction and acquisition); management (formulation, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of the program), access (selection criteria and demand prioritization) and permanence (guarantee of continuity of the housing service and assistance to the target public). As a scientific challenge, it requires understanding housing as a public interest, and as a housing service in the context of the hegemony of finance, where rental policies collaborate with the construction of permeabilities and incentives for this new frontier for the inheritance of capital, financial real estate, which transforms the urban territories. The project foresees some phases (semesters) with activities. Initially, it should read how the Program is structured today and its challenges, proposing partial adjustments, while the new policy is being constructed. Subsequently, it should raise and debate national and international experiences of rent policies, and promote a Latin American seminar and a publication. International workshops for management, with specialists and with applicants, make it necessary to go through the four axes of the project. As outputs, draft regulations are expected to be developed for each axis, as well as a final report with inputs for a public policy on social leasing for São Paulo; and the holding of an international seminar with resulting publication. (AU)