ENERGY - Odebrecht Informa

my own apartment. Now we can
get on with our lives.”
For the past five years, health
problems have forced Glicério
to use a wheelchair. Speaking of
their new housing, he emphatically
states: “Everything here is terrific.
I love everything about it, especially
going out for a ‘stroll.’” Alcenyr
adds: “Back in the slum, even doing
the month’s grocery shopping
was hard, because we had to climb
so many stairs. Here the area is
flat, well organized, and has a different
kind of structure.”
Rosineide Maria da Silva, 28,
tells a similar story. Born in the
northeast Brazilian state of Recife,
she arrived in Angra dos Reis five
years ago. She used to live in the
Morro da Cruz slum with her husband,
Antônio Gomes de Oliveira,
and three sons. On the day of the
mudslides they were all asleep in
bed when her eldest son (now 6)
went to his parents’ bedroom to
warn them that the kitchen was
“falling.” Rosineide recalls, “I ran
out and saw that the kitchen was
full of mud. The gas stove and
refrigerator were ruined. It was
hopeless.”
Rosineide’s house was condemned,
and since then she and her
family have lived in a unit provided
by the Recomeçar (New Start) program,
also known as “social rentals.”
This benefit was provided by the
City of Angra to help families who
had lost their homes to the mudslides.
The financial aid provided is
one monthly minimum wage (BRL
545, roughly USD 300) per unit for up
to 180 days. On September 17, 2011,
Rosineide moved into her new home
on the fourth floor of a building in the
same complex as Juraci. “Look, this
here is terrific, see? I still can’t believe
this is my apartment. I’m living
a dream,” she says, turning her eyes
to her two young children, Victoria,
18 months, and Victor, 3.
Efficient construction
method
According to the Angra dos
Reis Department of Urban Development,
the mudslides killed 53
Juraci, her husband, Alcenyr, and her father, Glicério: “I couldn’t wait to get my
own apartment”
people. One thousand people were
left homeless and 4,500 others
were displaced from their homes
because they were located in hazardous
areas. So providing housing
for people urgently in need of assistance
was an emergency measure
for the public authorities. The
first step was to put them up in socalled
“social rentals.” The second
was to build 800 housing units as
soon as possible. Achieving that
goal required the unified action
of the City of Angra dos Reis, the
Rio de Janeiro State Department
of Public Works (Seobras) and the
Ministry of National Integration, in
partnership with the private sector.
Angra dos Reis is a popular
resort city with 365 islands on its
coastline, of which the largest and
most famous is Ilha Grande (Big
Island). Tourists from Brazil and
around the world come to visit the
city just to see them. However, the
terrain on the mainland consists
primarily of steep hills. “Our geography
does not give us enough
areas suitable for housing,” says
Cassio Veloso de Abreu, the city’s
Secretary of Urban Development.
“About 70% of dwellings are irregular.
The mudslides of 2009 further
increased our responsibility. These
800 housing units are not enough;
they are just the beginning of an
extensive effort.”
To build 800 housing units, the
Seobras hired Consórcio Angra Melhor,
a joint venture of Odebrecht
Infraestrutura and Bairro Novo,
the Odebrecht Realizações Imobiliárias
(OR) area focused on the
low-income housing sector. “This
emergency situation led members
of the two companies to engage in
dialogue and present a proposal that
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