Public Infrastructure/ Amenities Category
Slum Upgrading Program, São Paulo, Brazil (Municipality of São Paulo)
(Municipality of São Paulo)
Slum Upgrading Program, São Paulo, Brazil
In the city of São Paulo there are more than 1,600 favelas, where millions of families live in inadequate conditions. Since 2005, the Municipality has been developing a program to Upgrade Slums throughout all metropolitan regions, which has brought untold benefits to approximately 150,000 people.
The aim of the program has been to provide a better quality of life to the residents of slums across the entire city. In order to achieve this, the work has concentrated on dealing with problems related to infrastructure, accessibility, the availability of social facilities and public services, as well as providing local residents with decent, new homes.
Considering the city itself as a source of solution, the Slum Upgrading aims to build quality public spaces, respecting the environmental and cultural pre-existence, and mainly, causing the blurring of urban and symbolic boundaries between the previously marginal and the formal area. The slum upgrading and its integration into the town, equipped with property, amenities and services required to contemporary urban life, enables their inhabitants multiplied access possibilities to work, study, health, investments for home improvements and, finally, real citizenship conditions.
The Municipality is very proud and honored to receive the FIABCI Prix d’Excellence Awards for this program. The Award sends a clear signal that they are on the right track and certainly encourages them to keep on moving towards their goals.