Preparatory document - International Federation for Housing and
Transcription
Preparatory document - International Federation for Housing and
1 Day S em Brazilian co-operatives for housing upgrade 2 3 RD OC TO BER 201 5 ar in FIRST PHASE KICK-OFF The Brazilian Co-operative for Housing Upgrade LAB is an Applied Research LAB on Co-operative Housing for Affordable Quality Habitat and Community Development initiatived by: The International Federation for Housing and Planning is a worldwide network of professionals, researchers, academics and civil servants representing the broad field of housing and planning. The federation organizes a wide range of activities across the globe with the aim to foster cross-sectorial knowledge exchanges of international expertise and “test” new solutions in response to the future urban development’s challenges. Through the Latin American Office based in Porto Alegre, Brazil, IFHP consolidates the fertile connections between the Latin American members and the global network facilitating the learning exchange and promoting the discussion on Latin American cities. www.ifhp.org www.pucrs.br/fau/ .org www.spicti.org Along the years, the Faculty of Architecture and Urbanism of PUCRS developed a special focus on social issues within the fields of architecture and urbanism. Especially Social Housing became an important theme in the course, dealt with in teaching, research and extension projects. FAUPUCRS tries to stimulate the discussion amongst students, citizens, governments and other groups of interest together, aiming at approximation to reality and the promotion of concrete action in society. Therefore also extension activities within the most deprived communities in Porto Alegre, as well as workshops, seminars and an international congress on social housing are developed. How to create a city where mutual benefit for all is created from the cooperation of multiple stakeholders is the core issue of the strategic planning office Spontaneous City International (SPcitI), working in several international regions since 2012, from Brazil to Kyrgyzstan. SPcitI focuses on an innovative planning method that unites the local user and all other stakeholders. SPcitI’s approach lies between the conventional categories of top-down and bottom-up coordinating all stakeholders. The result is greater communication capacity, joint commitment, and mutual benefit in the transition of cities. SPcitI investigates and assists processes commissioned by various local bodies, governments, and private sector, and stands in the front line of complex transformations for a sustainable and resilient future of cities. The Question: Can co-operatives be an efficient means to enhance and speed up regularization and legalization processes of existenting informal neighbourhoods to be upgraded? and if yes, in which way? IFHP - FAU PUCRS - SPCITI * BRAZILIAN C O - O P E R AT I V E S AND HOUSING UPGRADE LAB 1 Co-op for up-grade: ... Almost 40 per cent of families in the region [Latin America] live in a house beyond repair, have no title, or lack water, sewerage, electricity, adequate building materials, or space. It is estimated that by the end of this year that number would be increased by 10 per cent, continuing its raise further and further in the coming decades.1 It goes without saying that the massive lack of adequate housing for low-income population in Latin America is under great pressure as a consequence of relentless urban growth. In the meantime successful experiments, projects and programmes are set up across all Latin America, providing quality life environment and increased agencies development for low-income people. Drawing from this, extensive knowledge is deployed, yet implementation is still facing complex hinders in up-scaling from “best practice” to “common practice”. The Brazilian Co-operative Housing Upgrading LAB is a proposal for an applied research LAB that will focus on co-operative housing upgrading development for affordable quality habitat and community development. The LAB wants to be a proactive contribution to the on-going progress of what is called “social production of habitat”, within the context of actual housing policies and legal frameworks in Brazil. The existing informal city and qualitative housing deficit According to the Inter American Development Bank, of 130 million urban households in Latin America, 34 million (26 %) lack electricity, sanitation, piped water, sufficient space or legal land title. The urge to find efficient programmes that can structurally enhance upgrade of existing informal housing areas is shared by multiple actors ranging from the inhabitants themselves, to municipality and government departments, NGO’s, banks and developers interested in social impact. In practice new building to accommodate low income is often faster and easier to achieve. Nevertheless, new housing often implies relocation or other kind of negative impacts on the social and economic life of inhabitants which have consequences on the municipality management in the long term as well. Moreover, and not least affecting, new housing often implies the production of the city through extension into new ground 1. IDB, Many Paths to a Home, Emerging Business Models For Latin America And The Caribbean’s Base Of The Pyramid, 2014 pag. 4 IFHP - FAU PUCRS - SPCITI * BRAZILIAN C O - O P E R AT I V E S AND HOUSING UPGRADE LAB 2 rather than recovering the existing. In the last decades this trend is incrementally marginalizing low-income population far from centres of interest and creating congested urban environments. Brazilian housing policies In Brazil, there are two main federal policy programmes that are to complement each other in the provision of habitat. PAC - Urbanização de Favelas is a “curative” programme that is in charge of large scale favela upgrading interventions. The “preventive” Minha Casa Minha Vida programme finances new housing provision. PAC - Urbanização de Favelas programme (launched in 2007) focused on infrastructural interventions of slum upgrading. In order to be eligible for PAC investments, municipalities present projects to the Ministry of Planning. The municipalities are also in charge of the execution of the project. Since 2009, the national programme Minha Casa Minha Vida (MCMV), or My House My Life, is responsible for the social housing production in Brazil. Besides the governmental organization and vast allocation of public financial resources, the private sector has a great stake in this programme, developing the dwellings. Bottlenecks occurring in the first phase (2009-2010) have been tackled by changes in the programme for the second phase, 2011-2014. Still, for several reasons, the results show often to be distant of the real demands and expectations of future residents. In this sense a part of MCMV called Minha Casa Minha Vida - Entidades (MCMV-E), or My House My Life - Entities, was designed in order to bring residents closer to their habitat, financing Co-operative Housing projects. Yet, the MCMV-E programme so far has been scarcely applied. Co-operative Housing Worldwide, since the birth of the co-operative movement in Great Britain in the second half of 1800s, co-operatives have increased in importance as collective self-organization institutions, which fill in a different role between the public and the private sector. Brazil has a significant history of collective self-organization and social movements. including cooperative housing. The first cooperative housing production projects already existed during the military regime, and also in the 1980’s and 1990’s, co-operatives developed mutual-aid housing projects, with a higher or lesser degree of self-construction on the one hand and self-management on the other. Co-operative housing is, ideally, based on self-organization and collective benefits with potentials and controversies. The processes of co-operative building are tailor-made and time consuming. However, when successful, the positive outcomes are principally of a qualitative character and have positive impact not only on the households but also on the neighbourhood. “For the actors involved with social-housing production, the ultimate purpose of adopting self-construction processes should not be the savings on labor costs. Rather, it should be the involvement of citizens and the increased awareness regarding the social and political dimensions of housing.” (Interview Gouveia, R. and Kokudai, S., 2013) IFHP - FAU PUCRS - SPCITI * BRAZILIAN C O - O P E R AT I V E S AND HOUSING UPGRADE LAB 3 In Latin America, there are several experiences with co-operative self-organised housing production. As an example, the most seccessful and well-known example is the Uruguayan FUCVAM. At the same time there are many examples of slum upgrading interventions. However, we observe that slum-upgrading happens mainly on the initiatives of municipalities, in some cities more strongly than in others. Furthermore, regularization processes show sluggishness, due to different causes, such as burdensome bureaucracy, political lacunae, and complexity of the task. There is a great urgency for an up-scaling of slum upgrading and regularization projects. Existing massive parts of the cities have grown and keep growing. Because of these growths, partly by densification, and because of a possible degradation of the space and dwellings, upgrading what is already there becomes more and more complex. At the same time, there lies a huge potential, because of the large scale and the possibility of improvement of these areas, that contain strong human and material capital to be harnessed in a qualitative approach. Upgrading involves urban infrastructure and public space, legalization and particular housing. There is need for an integral approach, although it doesn’t need much explanation that there is a tangible rational for starting with the overall urban structure, to which the particular houses should be adapted. Urban qualification and regularizing of land titles are strongly depending on each other, and following on that, official land titles can facilitate the households to obtain financial support for housing upgrading. IFHP - FAU PUCRS - SPCITI * BRAZILIAN C O - O P E R AT I V E S AND HOUSING UPGRADE LAB 4 Observing that the residents of favelas are very depending on the public (political) choices, we imagine that they could exercise much more power in their demand for upgrading and regularization of their area when they are organized and formalized in cooperatives. We are conscious that co-operatives are still edge solutions and, besides the promising sides, they have some negative loopholes as well. The intent is to explore how the system could be improved to make sure inhabitants can get a stronger voice, and can be formally responsible for their internal organization with official contact persons, a president, list of members etc, in order to provide trust and clear communication with official bodies and organizations, such as the municipality. Another important point of investigation is how co-operatives would evolve in time. Making the assumption of a long-term process, in the context of Brazil, there could be three stages to investigate: 1. urbanistic upgrading and planning tools (involving own resources, PAC, local funding?) 2. juridical regularization (collective or individual) 3. particular housing upgrade (Caixa Econômica / MCMV / MCMV-E/private banks?) In synthesis, the applied research we are proposing would critically look into the cooperative model as a means for slum upgrade and which are the institutional and financial frameworks suitable for each phase of the development. IFHP - FAU PUCRS - SPCITI * BRAZILIAN C O - O P E R AT I V E S AND HOUSING UPGRADE LAB 5 Program of the day: MORNING 08.30 08.45 09.00 10.30 11.00 11.15 Welcome speech Prof. Paulo Horn Regal Introduction IFHP, FAU-PUCRS, SPcitI The current situation on housing issues, Alessandra D’Avila, Ministry of cities About land regularization, Betânia Alfonsin, PUCRS Framing the question of the day, Bernardina Borra, SPcitI The case of Porto Alegre Municipality, Ademir Maria, Cooperativismo DEMHAB Panel discussion first part Coffee break Panel discussion second part 12.30 Lunch AFTERNOON IFHP - 14.00 14.20 14.35 15.35 16.00 Short Workshop introduction – Porto Alegre case - Chapatral Questions and answers Short Workshop in small groups Open discussion Wrap up and thank you 16.15 17.30 Drinks FAU PUCRS - SPCITI * BRAZILIAN C O - O P E R AT I V E S AND HOUSING UPGRADE LAB 6 Objectives of the day: This first 1 Day seminar of the LAB aim is to Understand: - - - - - - IF and HOW cooperatives can be an instrument to upgrade informal areas Who are the relevant stakeholders? What are the experiences with cooperatives up to now in Brazil, in South America? What are the constraints? Are the instruments well organized? What is missing? Weak points? What are the steps to be taken? See how the process of upgrading by cooperative is organised by case studies in PoA - IFHP - FAU PUCRS - SPCITI What are the most relevant questions for the LAB to go on? * BRAZILIAN C O - O P E R AT I V E S AND HOUSING UPGRADE LAB 7 Going in depth: Going more in depth hereby a list of more specific questions to give a direction to the kind of issues the seminar will adress 1. Legal and planning instruments Which are the legal and planning instruments necessary or helpful in a process of slum qualification through cooperatives? What instruments are already offered? Should new instruments be created or the actual ones adapted? Could the cooperatives exist without legal support from the municipalities? Existing policy programmes What are the lessons learned so far within the PAC and MCMV-E programmes in relation to slum upgrading and cooperatives? Property In a process of regularization/legalization and/or housing upgrading through cooperatives, what kind of ownership is appropriate: e.g. ownership or land-lease, collective or individual? Concerning property: should there be changes in the property form in the different phases of the cooperative (regularization, legalization and housing upgrading - e.g. ownership or land-lease, collective or individual)? Can slum qualification through cooperatives also work for occupations on public land? 2. Financial conditions Which are the necessary financial conditions, and by which actors should they be offered (public organs, banks, cooperative participants themselves)? What could be the influence of the Orçamento Participativo? Do you know other original experiences of financial means/support, in Brazil or abroad? 3. Construction Who would be the building companies of the regularization interventions and later phases? IFHP - FAU PUCRS - SPCITI * BRAZILIAN C O - O P E R AT I V E S AND HOUSING UPGRADE LAB 8 Who pays them? Should incentives be involved? How much can co-operative members realize by themselves (in terms of individual housing and overall urban improvement, and in terms of self-management and selfconstruction)? Are there business models for building (material) companies in the slum upgrading interventions? 4. Cooperative organization Which should be the life span of a co-operative association? Are the cooperatives more important in some phases of regularization/legalization than in others? Do cooperatives go through a certain evolution? Which are the downsides of a co-operative association to beware of, among its members and towards the outside? Are the people at slums aware of the potential of cooperatives power? Process/ stakeholders Which are the steps to be taken in the process of slum qualification through cooperatives? Which actors should be involved and with which roles, in which steps? In your opinion, is the cooperative interesting in the different kinds of improvement: (1) legalization, (2) regularization and (3) housing improvements? What is the chart of benefits per stakeholder? 5. Public Space Which is the real extension and impact of a co-operative project for upgrade of public space? Which actors are in charge of spaces beyond the housing plots? Can the co-operative partially take over? Is that suitable and desirable? 6. Level of governance and scale Can the cooperatives be considered an adequate urban generation instrument? Can co-operatives as a method for up-grade be up-scaled at national level? How can the current policy framework support and promote and diffuse more cooperatives for upgrade? IFHP - FAU PUCRS - SPCITI * BRAZILIAN C O - O P E R AT I V E S AND HOUSING UPGRADE LAB 9 the Panelists: Architect and urban planner and a development practitioner, Head Capacity Development Unit, Housing & Urban Management Expert UN-HABITAT Claudio Acioly is an architect and urban planner with experience in planning, design, management, implementation and evaluation of housing and urban development policies and projects in over 25 different countries. He has lived or worked continuously in more than 10 countries, often occupying leading positions, working closely with decision makers, senior executives and policy makers of governments, scholars and academic institutions, civil society organizations and community-based organizations. His career spans from theory and practice linking urban planning, housing, urban regeneration and slum upgrading. Claudio Acioly Architect and urban designer, director PAC/UAP Urbanização de Assentamentos Precários, Ministry of Cities Alessandra d´Avila Vieira is an architect and urban planner, graduated at the University of São Paulo – USP. She has a master degree in Housing Planning at the Technological Research Institute of São Paulo – IPT. She worked in local governments and nongovernmental organizations in the field of urban planning, focused on urban regeneration and housing. She works for the Ministry of Cities´ National Housing Secretariat in 2007, is a Technical Analyst for Social Policies, and is the Director of the Slum Upgrading Department. Alessandra d’Avila Architect and urban planner Technical Advisor at Regional Office for Latin America and the Caribbean UN-HABITAT Rio de Janeiro, Brazil Architect and urban planner by the University of São Paulo (1998, Brazil) and a Master of Architecture and Urban Planning by the School of Engineering of São Carlos, University of São Paulo (2006, Brazil). Specialist in the planning and management of programs to reduce urban poverty by the Institute for Housing and Urban Development Studies (2001, Netherlands) and design and housing development by the Department of Architecture and the Built Environment, Faculty of Engineering of Lund (2009, Sweden). For 16 years, he worked in governmental institutions with policies of urban development, housing, strategic planning, social inclusion, citizen participation, communication and culture at local and national levels. Cid Blanco IFHP - FAU PUCRS - SPCITI * BRAZILIAN C O - O P E R AT I V E S AND HOUSING UPGRADE LAB 10 Architect and Urban designer Advisor at the Technical Analysis Commission of Land Regularization DEMAB PoA Sílvia Maria Carpenedo graduated in 1981 in architecture and urban design at the federal University of Rio Grande do Sul. She has a masters degree in Sustainable Development. Since 1996, she works for the Municipal Department of Housing (DEMHAB) in Porto Alegre. She has been coordinator of urbanization and coordinator of elaboration of the Municipal Plan of Social Housing in Porto Alegre. At the moment she makes part of the “Technical Analysis Commission of Land Regularization”. Sílvia Maria Carpenedo Architect and urban planner professor at FAU/UFRJ Rio de Janeiro, and director of ArquiTraço Projetos Ltda Solange Carvalho graduated from the Faculty of Architecture and Urbanism at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (FAU/UFRJ), Brazil in 1994. She is a professor at the Faculty of Architecture and Urbanism of Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (FAU/ UFRJ). Her research focuses on Housing and Human Settlements, emphasizing Social Housing. She also is Director of ArquiTraço Projetos Ltda, and has extensive experience in urbanization and architecture projects in informal settlements. She has won awards in numerous competitions that focus on informal settlements and social housing. Solange Carvalho Economist, Advisor of the Nacional Secretary of Housing - Ministry of Cities Fernando Garcia de Freitas is PhD in Economics, Universidade de São Paulo, Brazil. He was Professor of Economic Development at Fundação Getulio Vargas, Brazil. Recent publications: (i) Subsidies, credit, and housing deficit in Chile). ECLAC Review. Santiago de Chile, August 2013. (ii) Dialogue Brasil and Europe Union: Social Housing, Financing and Subsidies. Cities Alliance, 2015. (iii) PMCMV beneficiary Satisfaction Survey, Ministry of Cities, Brazil, 2015. Fernando Garcia Architect and urban designer Presidency Consultant for housing and social development programs, former Executive director of the Bento Rubião Human Rights Foundation Ricardo de Gouvêa Corrêa graduated in 1978 at the the Rio de Janeiro’s Federal University – UFRJ as an architect/urban designer. He has a post-graduation degree in “Housing and Urban Development” and “Land Management, and Informal Settlement Regularization” at the IHS, the Institute for Housing and Urban Development Studies, and at the moment he is a doctorate student at the Urban and Regional Planning and Research Institute of UFRJ. From 1990 until 2013, he was the Executive director of the Bento Rubião Human Rights Foundation and coordinator of the “Land and Housing Program”, working with land regularization and low-income housing projects, for a large part with cooperatives. Since 2014, Ricardo is Presidency Consultant for housing and social development programs, especially for the Minha Casa Minha Vida Entidades Urbanas e Rurais Program. Ricardo Corrêa IFHP - FAU PUCRS - SPCITI * BRAZILIAN C O - O P E R AT I V E S AND HOUSING UPGRADE LAB 11 Lawyer, Coordinator of the Team of Cooperativism at DEMHAB PoA Ademir Maria graduated in law, and has a post-graduation degree in International Relations. He has been active in the formulation of the cooperative programme and now he is the head of the sector Cooperativismo at DEMHAB. He has experience in the area of real estate and juridical business. He has also been a professional football player for 22 years. Ademir Maria Community Leader, Porto Alegre Marli Medeiros (1952) was born in the city of Alegrete, in the Campanha region of Rio Grande do Sul. She moved to Porto Alegre in 1976 in search for better living conditions for her family. Since then she has worked as housekeeper, bank administrative assistant and shop manager. She decided to devote herself exclusively to community work, and not to let the rules imposed by the local dealers controlling her. In 1992 she founded the Women’s Club and in 1993, she finished the course for becoming Community Leader with the aim to promote and defend women’s rights and their capacitation as community leaders, promoting the importance of creating a professional possibilities for women, for their moral, psychological and financial freedom. Marli Medeiros Urban Specialist at the World Bank, Brazil Country Office Emanuela Monteiro is an Urban Specialist currently working in the Social, Urban, Rural & Resilience Global Practice of the World Bank, based in the Brazil Country Office. She has 13 years of experience in Urban Development, both within the Private and Public sectors, in the latter case serving diverse Subnational Governments in Brazil. Prior to working at the World Bank, her experience as a consultant mixed analytical, policy recommendation, technical and managerial work in the areas of Regional and Urban Planning, Urban Design, and Land Regularization. Over the last five years, she has worked at the World Bank as a technical expert and team leader dealing with a portfolio of projects in Brazil focused on Integrated Urban Services Provision (with emphasis on slum upgrading), Institutional Strengthening for Social, Urban and Environmental Management, and Local Economic Development. Emanuela Monteiro Lawyer, Professor, Expert in Land Regularization Betânia de Moraes Alfonsin Graduated in Law and Social Sciences from the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul, Betânia has a master in City and Regional Planning from the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul (2000) and PhD in Urban and Regional Planning at UFRJ (2008). At present she is Professor at PUCRS in the Faculty of Law and of Architecture and Urbanism. She is also professor at the Fundação Escola Superior of Public Ministry Rio Grande do Sul, and is a teacher of the Legal Dimensions of the Urban Policy Programme for Latin America and the Caribbean at the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy. With an extensive experience in public law, in particular on urban law, she focuses on the topics of Urban Policy, Urban Planning, Housing Policy, Land Regularization. Betânia Alfonsin IFHP - FAU PUCRS - SPCITI * BRAZILIAN C O - O P E R AT I V E S AND HOUSING UPGRADE LAB 12 case study Cooperatives for slum upgrade in Porto Alegre: Porto Alegre, perhaps as the only Brazilian city, has institutionalized cooperatives for slum upgrading. In the city, two institutional instruments enable the slum upgrading by cooperatives possible: - The Participatory Budget, or Orçamento Participativo -The Lei das Cooperativas, law 9.313. This law allows public financial resources for the cooperatives. the Law n.9.319, 12 December 2003 formalized the municipal program for the creation of Housing Co-operatives in Porto Alegre Step 1: Acquiring the land A necessity for obtaining resources through the cooperatives program of the Orçamento Participativo for land regularization is that the residents become legal owners of the occupied land, buying it from the landowner. For that, a legal entity has to be formed, which can be a cooperative. In Porto Alegre, there are 5 cases of such cooperatives, established after a request for reintegração da posse of the landowner. For the residents, in this stage, the cooperative is a form of (financial) organization, establishing legally the responsibilities of all residents. For landowners, dealing with cooperatives gives them more security, as the contract and the different parties involved in the contract are all legally established. All members pay the same amount for the land acquisition, so it doesn´t matter if one has a smaller or bigger piece of land. kt bac o be gin Legal Acquisition Minimu m of proc of 5 years of the Land by ess “usucapião” by the informal population LAND INVASION IFHP - Create a Community Association Claim for urban infrastructure on “Orçamento Participativo” Region Agenda Competing urban priorities with other communities FORMALIZATION St a +/ rt a -2 c ye o-o ar pe s p ra ro tiv ce e ss FAU PUCRS USUAL PROCESS Informal Population Expulsion Legal Acquisition of the Land by a financial agreement between infromal population and land owner, intermediated by the municipality - SPCITI * BRAZILIAN Claim for urban infrastructure on “Orçamento Participativo” Cooperative Agenda COOPERATIVE PROCESS C O - O P E R AT I V E S AND HOUSING UPGRADE LAB 13 Step 2: Regularization Once the cooperative and the landowner have agreed on the contract that determines that the cooperative will buy the land, the cooperative can apply for resources at the Orçamento Participativo (OP), which reserves a separate budget for cooperatives. The Lei das Cooperatives makes it possible that public money goes to private entities (the cooperatives). The resources are a loan, which the cooperative has to pay back in 20 years, with low interest rates (2%). The resources are to finance the 1) survey/mapping (levantamento), and 2) project for regularization. Both are obtained by bidding (licitaçoes), an obligation, set by the Law of Licitações. 1. Land Survey ( Levantamento ) This land survey (levantamento) is solicited by a bid, after a first survey done by DEMHAB (Departamento de Habitação), together with the cooperative. From this survey, the Design Brief (Termos de Referência) is established. From that moment, DEMHAB launches the bid for the levantamento. Architecture offices can do proposals, in which they bid for doing the topographic, environmental and cadastral survey, based on which they propose an EVU: Study of Urban Streets Feasibility (Estudo de Viabilidade Urbanistica). 2. Regularization project After establishment of the levantamento, including the Study of Feasibility, a second bid finds place, for the urbanistic project. The project needs to be approved and controlled by the municipality. This project seems pretty much limited to basic infrastructure (so qualification of public space is not so much included probably). The companies involved in this part are building companies. The influence of the cooperative mainly takes place at the establishment of the Terms of Reference (Termos de Referência). Ownership After the regularization, the families apply for individual parceling. From the moment they all have their lot, they can opt for liquidation of the cooperative, but this depends on their further future ambitions. Currently, there is no way to sell invaded public land to cooperatives, in the current legal framework. CHAPATRAL Housing co-operative of transport workers and autonomous of Porto Alegre (Cooperativa Habitacional dos Trabalhadores Rodoviários e Autônomos de Porto Alegre). Chapatral is situated in the South Zone of Porto Alegre. The area houses 112 families. In 1996, the owner of the land showed the area mapped with streets and a plot division, and started to sell the lots. He promised that the area would be regularized, however this never took place. The residents formed a housing cooperative, as they wanted to realize the housing project collectively. But, due to the fact that the allotment had happened informally, the cooperative had not the required formal position for public support. A process of land regularization had become necessary. IFHP - FAU PUCRS - SPCITI * BRAZILIAN C O - O P E R AT I V E S AND HOUSING UPGRADE LAB 14 Up until today, the residential area is in irregular conditions, with illegal light provision and without pavement. Based on the Estatuto da Cidade, the area has been destinated to become an PUCRS AEIS, Area of Special Interest, due to the irregularity and low income of the residents. From that moment on, the area became eligible for regularization/ urbanization, and the cooperative decided to go on through this process as a cooperative, conditioned by the Cooperative Programme and Law of the municipality Porto Alegre. They applied for resources of the Orçamento Participativo of the cooperative section, made CHAPATRAL possible by the law abovementioned, 9.313 – the Lei das Cooperativas (2003). They could obtain 84.000 reais from the OP, for the topographic and environmental survey of the area and a Feasibilty Study, Estudo de Viabilidade Urbanística. The levantamento has been commissioned and realized by a private company, three years ago; however the company has not been remunerated for that, for bureaucratic reasons. At this moment, the levantamento has been approved, so by the end of the year, the survey phase can be finished. Further on, the cooperative members will have to register their terrains and start the next phase of soliciting for infrastructure (water, sewage, pavement and light). The cooperative faces many difficulties, of members that do not pay the monthly fee, slowness by the public sector due to bureaucratic reasons, lack of confidence how the process will work out. The cooperative programme has room for improvement. Yet, at the same time, members acknowledge that it is a financial and organizational way for regularization that allows them some power: it makes possible that, when they take initiative, the government has to react and act. IFHP - FAU PUCRS - SPCITI * BRAZILIAN C O - O P E R AT I V E S AND HOUSING UPGRADE LAB 15 LAB Follow up: This lab opens a three phase research programme on co-operative housing development for Affordable Quality Habitat and Community Development. As a starting point, the multi-stakeholder debate panel -1 day seminar- wants to challenge the assumption that co-operatives are valuable for the process of upgrading and regularization of informal settlements encouraging a proactive knowledge exchange and debate among the various actors engaged in ensuring the Brazilian’s future housing provision. Following on that, the second phase of the project will be the application of test-case projects in three different cities in Brazil in order to prepare and streamline processes of ‘co-operative favela upgrading’. Cases will be announced later this year. The third step will be entirely dedicated to knowledge sharing and debate of the results within the partners’ network and other platforms of discussion. Besides, the FAU-PUCRS CHIS Housing conference that will be held in Porto Alegre in April 2016 and the third United Nations Conference on Housing and Sustainable Urban Development in Quito, Ecuador, from 17 – 20 October, 2016, will represent the milestones for showcase the obtained knowledge and address more stakeholders on the outcomes of this initiative. The programme is a work in progress and open to receive contributions and contributors to enrich and support the realization of the coming phases. To strengthen and widespread awareness about new possible models to sustain co-operative housing upgrading in Brazil, and enable improvements for existing housing neighbourhoods, is the main goal of this programme. B1 B2 23rd Oct 2015 IFHP - FAU PUCRS - SPCITI * 11-13 Nov 2015 WS1 WS2 WS3 BRAZILIAN C O - O P E R AT I V E S Apr 2016 AND HABITAT III, Quito PoA CHIS Housing conference, PoA RESEARCH AND TEST CASE PROJECTS DIVULGATION <- - - funding - - - - > <- - dialogue and confrontation - - > <- - - - - - - - - - - - research and action - - - - - - - - - - - > IFHP Summit, Berlin KICK -OFF 1 day seminar Oct 2016 HOUSING UPGRADE LAB 16 practical information: Willing to contribute or sponsor the programme? If you want to share your experience or learn from experiences elsewhere, and/or want to sponsor the LAB Please get in touch with us: FAU-PUCRS Paulo Horn Regal regal@pucrs.br Renee Nycolaas r.nycolaas@ifhp.org IFHP Viviana Rubbo v.rubbo@ifhp.org SPcitI Gert Urhahn gert@spciti.org Bernardina Borra bernardina@spciti.org What? Co-operative housing Labs is an open-source project investigating the role co-operatives can play to enhance and speed up the regularization processes of existing neglected informal neighbourhoods The programme is still in the making. Interviews, site visits, background information and reports are available on IFHP website at http://www.ifhp.org/event/brazilian-cooperative-housing-upgrading-lab. In the coming future you’ll also be able to connect to the work in progress of the LAB on the blog http://Braziliancooplabs.org (to be published soon). Furthermore, you can also actively participate! Who? Policy-makers and housing experts and professionals, local and governmental authorities, civil society, local housing associations, co-operatives, private actors, building companies, We would like to encourage local experiments and practices, create the connections and facilitate the dialogue among stakeholders in order to make a change in the current housing policies approach. How? Join our programme and support our research. The programme just started and need change makers to achieve its goal! IFHP - FAU PUCRS - SPCITI * BRAZILIAN C O - O P E R AT I V E S AND HOUSING UPGRADE LAB 17