In the early hours of Saturday, May 31, the Homeless Workers’ Movement (MTST) strengthened an occupation in an area of Rio de Janeiro’s port region that already brought together around 200 families. According to the Movement, the area belongs to Jornal do Brasil and Docas S.A. and had been abandoned for more than two decades.
Members of the MTST have been cleaning up the land, preparing the area to organize housing and a community kitchen.
“This is an occupation that has been going on for a few days and today we are in the process of consolidating it, guaranteeing more structure for the families,” explains Gabriel Siqueira, national coordinator for the MTST.
The land is part of the Porto Maravilha project, which since before the 2014 World Cup and the 2016 Olympics has begun to receive public investment to revitalize the area. The Museum of Tomorrow, for example, is part of this project. The neighborhoods that belong to the region are Caju, Gamboa, Saúde, Santo Cristo and part of the city center.
However, the MTST claims that the government is not fulfilling its agreed counterpart of offering affordable housing to the population.
“To this day, there is no Minha Casa Minha Vida (track 1) development here in the center, there is no social housing, they promised 20,000 homes and, in the last 15 years, they have only built 15 units,” Siqueira continues.
“The families are demanding the right to live in the center, and this is our motto: the people in the center again,” he concludes.
The Movement is demanding 250 social housing units. Leaders will continue to help the families in the occupation – the name of which will be decided later in an assembly with the residents – even in the event of eviction attempts.
“Eduardo Paes has his house, his bed, his job, but he gives the people two options: either he takes their jobs away by force, or he prevents them from working by taking away their opportunities to do so. There are people unemployed in Baixada Fluminense because the jobs are here in the center,” says Raquel Lucena, secretary of the Residents’ Association of the God Bless Us Occupation and leader of the MTST.
The RJ City Hall has been contacted and the space is still open for demonstrations.
This article was first published by Brasil de Fato in Portuguese.
