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Topic

Housing Insecurity and Housing Rights in Times of Financialization and Global Health Emergency: Lessons from Communities in Brazil

Department of Geography

Date & location

• Tuesday, January 21, 2025

• 1:00 P.M.

• Virtual Defence

Reviewers

Supervisory Committee

• Dr. Reuben Rose-Redwood, Department of Geography, University of Victoria (Co-Supervisor)

• Dr. Jorge Luis Barbosa, Department of Geography, Federal Fluminense University (Co-Supervisor)

• Dr. Jutta Gutberlet, Department of Geography, University of Victoria (Member)

• Dr. Simon Springer, Department of Geography, University of Newcastle (Member)

• Dr. Daniel Sanfelice, Department of Geography, Federal Fluminense University (Outside Member) 

External Examiner

• Dr. Patricia Basile, Department of Geography, Indiana University 

Chair of Oral Examination

• Dr. Margo Matwychuk, Department of Anthropology, UVic

   

Abstract

Communities across the world have been heavily impacted by two interconnected crises: a lack of adequate housing and the Covid-19 pandemic. As some of the primary measures to contain the spread of the coronavirus relied on proper hygiene procedures as well as physical and social isolation and lockdowns, those already in a precarious housing situation and under financial distress suffered during the Covid-19 pandemic in a singular manner needing to be further supported. My research investigates the interplay between precarious housing and the global pandemic in times of ongoing financialization of housing rights, and how this has affected low income households in Brazil generally and low-income women, gender diverse people and racialized people in particular. To accomplish the goals of this study, I used a community-based participatory approach and partnered with local organizations and community leaders to study housing during the Covid-19 pandemic. Virtual data collection occurred between 2021 and early 2022 followed by in-person fieldwork in the second half of 2022. Additionally, I deployed a mixed-method approach using statistical survey at the country scale, and purposeful and snowball sampling techniques for qualitative data collection. I further analyzed the case of residents living in impoverished communities and in low-income, large-scale housing complexes in Brazil, focusing on Fortaleza Metro Region, the capital of Ceará state in northeast Brazil. As results, this research has found complex urban social dynamics in low-income communities in times of pandemic such as the challenges of living in inadequate housing, territorial disputes affecting residents’ everyday life, and chains of solidarity and mutual aid despite the general state of precarity. This study critically analyzes residents’ perspectives on precarious housing and housing development. Hence, a compilation of the respondents’ narratives and perceptions of their everyday life experience as marginalized groups in the context of Covid-19 have pointed to recommendations co-created by community partners and individual participants envisioning the improvement of housing development that target the most vulnerable, and for reviving a progressive housing policy in Brazil, which points to housing needs being addressed through community-based approaches to urban development rather than more mega-projects that build thousands of housing units in peripheral lands. This enables urban and housing development planning and actions that consider the experiences, shocks, knowledge and perspectives of vulnerable residents in post-pandemic times as well as the possibility to use the results for improving community development, pandemic preparedness and housing development for the poor.