City of God: the resettlement
MARCELO NERI
City of God, the Brazilian film with the most nominations in the history of the
Oscars, is set in a community with a valuable experience about the effects of an urban
resettlement of a slum’s population. The relatively long existence period of this
community, which dates back to 1966 in Rio de Janeiro, may provide useful lessons to
the design of a menu of alternative policies for the provision of infrastructure in
deprived areas – without moving families to other areas, as dictates the SlumNeighborhood program (programa Favela Bairro), being implemented in town – or
property/land regularization, being discussed as a result of the current Brazilian
metropolitan crisis. The most metropolitan State with the largest number of slums in
the country, Rio de Janeiro is an excellent laboratory for housing policies.
Reallocating marginalized communities is a complex policy exercise that can be
seen from the different perspectives of the many stakeholders involved in the process.
Firstly, the view from the former neighbors of the slums in the heart of Rio’s south
side, who noticed a capital gain from the realty’s increase in value. Secondly, the
perspective of the public sector, including immediate and future financial and political
aspects, such as removing costs or prospective change in tax collection as the real
estate’s tax (IPTU). Lastly, and most importantly, the perspective of poverty, the
resettled view, which in many ways is present in the film’s plot.
Quality of life – From this last perspective we will analyze the housing, work and
life conditions of the City of God inhabitants. In particular, the extent to which the
community shares the same social problems as other large-scale slums in the city of
Rio de Janeiro, such as Rocinha, Complexo do Alemão, Jacarezinho and Maré1. These
communities are five of the 32 administrative boroughs in Rio and can analyzed in
detail through IBGE’s 2000 Census2. The comparison of these social portraits provides
the initial impressions about the possible implications of the resettlements.
We begin with some housing indicators, somewhat related to the very origin of
the City of God. The proportion of housing built on the homeowner’s own land (82,8%)
is higher than in the other four communities (73,2%) and even others in the State of
Rio de Janeiro. The amount of housing finance (6,96%) is well above the other four
communities’ (1,5% on average), validating the notion that access to credit and more
formal land rights are connected. Families’ access to high-value durable goods, whose
credit is more restricted, is higher in the City of God than in other communities –
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washing machines (55,4% against 38,3%), cars (19,3% against 12,8%), TV sets
(99,1% against 97, 4%) and VCRs (61% against 53,6%) —, which enabled almost half
of its inhabitants to watch the Oscars’ ceremony and will enable them to watch the
fillm in their homes.3
Apart from housing finance and property title deeds, a sign of the State’s
presence in the life of City of God’s inhabitants is their access to some public services.
The comparison, however, shows numbers similar to that of other assessed
communities, as follows: water (98,2% against 97,7%), piped water in the household
(,3% against 96.2%) and electricity (99,1% against 99,4%). Collected waste is the
only item where City of God scores favourable: 79,1% against 52,4% of the remaining
fou communities.
Of the Five communities, City of God has the highest income from work: R$ 439
against R$ 396 of the other four’s average, albeit the working day is on the same level
for all, 45,8 weekly hours. The salary difference may be explained by the higher
education level of the occupied/working (7,2 schooling years) – also the highest among
the analyzed communities (6,1 years). As the Brazilian historical rate takes around a
decade for the average education level to increase one year, the City of God is about a
decade ahead of the remaining slums, but ten years behind the State’s overall rate.
Unemployment rates at 22,3% of the community and is a record among the largest
carioca slums (19,1% on average) and of all the 32 city’s administrative boroughs or
the State’s 92 municipalities. The high unemployment rate does not reflect the higher
economic activity, as City of God has the lowest rate of participation in the labor
market among the considered slums (67,9% versus 70,2% on the average). The main
difference in the income of the communities is the larger public transfers, which is
more relevant in City of God (25,3% versus 19,4%). The housing conditions in the
community resemble more the large carioca slums than the rest of the city.
Nonetheless, the absence of the State is less evident there than in other slums.
Obviously, simple comparisons between the portraits of many communities
taken at different points in time are not sufficient to determine the causal relations
among the resettlements and the housing and work conditions of those involved. In
this sense, a sequence of pictures is necessary in order to compare the same people
before and after the change, or preferably a film that depicted the life stories of these
people4.
References
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1
Despite not considered a slum – technically speaking, as the result of urban planning
– Maré inhabitants call it a favela.
2
Data analyzed here come from the End of Hunger Map II database, in a partnership
between
Ação
da
Cidadania,
Sesc’s
Banco
Rio
de
Alimentos
and FGV
(see
www.fgv.br/cps and the artictle on Conjuntura Econômica November, 2003.)
3
Of the City of God inhabitants, 24,2% have household per capita income lower than
half a minimum wage, identical to the average of the remaining low-income
communities analyzed. As portrayed in the film, City of God is the borough with the
largest presence of people who consider themselves black or light black (62%), but,
opposite to its name, it is the third community in terms of people without religion.
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Janice Perlman is now researching in the Field, interviewing again inhabitants of some
carioca favelas – as she has been doing for 35 years. Among them, former inhabitants
of the Catacumba slum, who were removed from the Lagoa Rodrigo de Freitas to the
City of God. About a year ago, I met with Janice at a Northeastern airport, where she
was searching for former slum inhabitants who had returned to their home towns.
OLHO
Most metropolitan and slum-striken state in the Federation, Rio de Janeiro is a
privileged lab for housing policies
Serviços e Transferências Públicas
Acesso a Serviços Públicos
Água rede Canalização do
geral
micílio
Transferências
Iluminação
elétrica
Lixo coleta
do
% da Renda Não
Trabalho
Cidade de Deus
98.2%
98.3%
99.1%
79.1%
25.3%
Média das demais 4 favelas
97.7%
96.2%
99.4%
52.4%
19.4%
Maré
99.5%
97.5%
99.6%
85.0%
17.9%
Rocinha
95.3%
96.4%
98.3%
10.7%
18.0%
Complexo do Alemão
97.6%
92.9%
99.9%
48.8%
18.2%
Jacarezinho
98.5%
97.9%
99.7%
64.8%
23.5%
81.8%
92.9%
98.9%
83.0%
31.9%
UF (Rio de Janeiro)
Fonte: CPS/IBRE/FGV a partir dos microdados do Censo Demográfico 2000/IBGE.
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Duráveis e Moradia
Acesso a Bens Duráveis
Financiamento
Habitacional
Regularização
Fundiária
Tem
Tem automó
Tem videoc
Tem televisão
máquina de la
vel
assete
var
Domicílio próprio
pagando
Terreno próprio
Cidade de Deus
55.4%
19.3%
99.1%
61.0%
6.9%
82.8%
Média das demais 4 favelas
Maré
38.3%
38.0%
11.9%
14.3%
97.4%
97.1%
53.6%
49.6%
1.5%
4.2%
73.1%
67.3%
Rocinha
35.6%
8.9%
96.9%
54.1%
0.4%
71.7%
Complexo do Alemão
38.3%
15.2%
97.6%
53.9%
0.8%
82.6%
Jacarezinho
41.2%
9.0%
98.0%
56.7%
0.7%
71.0%
52.1%
34.2%
97.4%
57.6%
5.7%
70.6%
UF (Rio de Janeiro)
Fonte: CPS/IBRE/FGV a partir dos microdados do Censo Demográfico 2000/IBGE.
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