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Policy responses to tenure insecurity157Box 6.27 Participatory housing policies and legislation in BrazilVarious groups in Brazil have carried out innovative, independentand self-organized efforts to address housing and land rights. Themost common experiences involve co-operatives, associations orother self-help efforts aimed at building or improving housing inurban areas. Since the 1980s, such efforts have been organizedunder the National Forum on Urban Reform, which is an umbrellaorganization of popular movements, professional organizations andnon-governmental organizations (NGOs) in the areas of housing,urban management, urban transportation and sanitation. Amongthe major achievements of the forum is the development of aPlatform for Urban Reform, which seeks to realize housing andland rights and to combat poverty and social inequalities. Thisplatform was underwritten by 131,000 voters and presented byvarious organizations to Congress in 1987 as part of the processleading up to the adoption of the new constitution of 1988.In some cities, the forum is represented through local orregional forums, which deals with the following issues:• actions in the defence of the ‘right to the city’ and of communitieswhose housing rights are threatened with forceddisplacement by the implementation of projects for developmentor the promotion of tourism and/or infrastructureconstruction or improvement;• participation in programmes and projects for land regularizationin informal and irregular urban settlements;• organization of counselling and capacity-building on publicrights and policies for popular leadership and organizations;and• participation in city management processes.Source: Marques, 2007Among the major achievements of the National Forum was theapproval of the City Statute and its contribution to the establishmentof the Ministry of Cities in 2003. The National Forum alsoplayed a major role in both the first and the second National Cityconferences, held in 2003 and 2005, respectively. The first conferenceled to the establishment of the National City Council in 2004.The council is a consultative body responsible for proposing guidelinesand goals for public policies addressing national urbandevelopment, housing, sanitation and transportation. It alsoprovides guidelines and recommendations for the application of theCity Statute and initiates national and regional plans for territorialorganization.Another result of the organization of the urban socialmovements was the approval of a bill creating the National SocialHousing System and the National Fund. The proposal for this newlaw was presented in 1988 and was signed by 1 million voters, as isrequired for such popular initiatives. It proposed the creation of anarticulated national housing system composed of an executivepublic authority: the Ministry of the Cities; the Federal Savings Bankas its operational agent; the National City Council and the NationalSocial Housing Fund; housing councils and funds created at themunicipal and state levels; and housing co-operatives and communityassociations. The law reflecting the demands of this popularinitiative was approved by the Federal Senate in 2005 (Law No11.124/2005) and established the National Housing System to facilitateaccess to rural and urban land and adequate housing by thepoor people through implementation of a policy of subsidies. Thislaw provides for the transfer of funds now used to repay theforeign debt to municipal and state programmes to subsidizehousing and land for the low-income population.The National Social Housing Fund is managed by a councilcomposed of 22 representatives, of whom 10 are from the governmentalsector and 12 are from the non-governmental sector (socialmovements, the private housing sector, trade unions, professionalentities, universities and NGOs). The council members are entitledto approve the annual plan of financial investment for housingprogrammes, considering the resources available in the NationalFund; to establish criteria for the municipalities, states, housing cooperativesand associations to access these financial resources; andto monitor the full application of such resources.There are still manystructural obstaclesof a conceptual,political,institutional andfinancial natureto be overcomebefore the legalconcessions becomea realityimplementing national policies and legislation concerningthe promotion of land and housing rights by the federalgovernment and the civil society is assisted by specificpolicies and programmes, such as the National Policy toSupport Sustainable Urban Land Regularization, establishedin 2003 by the Ministry of the Cities; the National SocialHousing System and its Social Housing Fund, approved in2005; and the National City Conferences, held in 2003 and2005 (see Box 6.27). 59Brazil continues to face serious land-access problemsboth in urban and rural areas, as can be seen from the manyand varied conflicts over land possession. Despite the factthat the federal government has managed to advance significantlyin formulating comprehensive national housing andland policies and in creating the essential legal–institutionalbases, some programmes are isolated and ineffective, andhave little significant impact on the Brazilian reality.There are still many structural obstacles of a conceptual,political, institutional and financial nature to beovercome before the legal concessions become a reality.Recent statistics show that the Brazilian housing deficit hasincreased over the last decade from 5.4 million housing unitsin 1991 to 6.7 million in 2000 – an increase of 22 per centin only ten years. Furthermore, it continues to grow at a rateof 2.2 per cent per year. In 2000, the urban housing deficitwas estimated at 5.4 million units. Paradoxically, accordingto the 2000 census, there are 4.8 million unoccupiedresidences in the cities. 60IndiaIn India, the national housing policy of 1994 states thatcentral and state governments must take steps to avoidforced evictions. Moreover, they must encourage in-situupgrading, slum renovation and other initiatives with theprovision of occupancy rights. When evictions are unavoidable,the policy states that the government ‘must undertakeselective relocation with community involvement only for