The Vila Verde occupation, on the beaches of Atlântida Sul and Mariapolis, in Osório, on the border with Xangri-lá, is currently one of the largest in the state of Rio Grande do Sul. Born in the mid-2000s, when few families occupied the territory. Among its features is the proximity to the beach and the distance of just over 100 kilometers from the capital and metropolitan region of Porto Alegre, the origin of many of its families.
This occupation, as well as others along the North Coast, is the result of a lack of housing policy and also of real estate speculation that expels and affects low-income families more. This logic occurs mainly in large cities, with repercussions in other regions. Mainly on the North Coast, which is currently the center of dispute over land occupation in RS, due to the “unlimited” and environmentally and socially unsustainable voracity of real estate speculation.
If before, the dynamics of the increase of families in Vila Verde was largely due to the seasonality of the summer, in search of job opportunities on the beach, there was an increase in the luxury condominiums of Xangri-lá, almost always informal jobs in civil construction. , general and domestic services, together with the backdrop of the economic and social crisis of the mid-2010s, led to a significant increase in the number of families in the occupation, which reached its peak during the covid pandemic, since many families were unable to pay the rent and had to find a place to live. The existing precariousness, from the basics, such as water and light services, or simply having a recognizable address, combined with the countless promises of land regularization by the various municipal administrations (or PDT or MDB), including the current one, of the mayor Roger Caputi (MDB), makes the right to housing just one of the violated rights, which include education, health, transportation, culture and social assistance, for the more than 600 families that currently live there, more than 2,600 people.
This number is uncertain, since in addition to the seasonality of the families, the abandonment of basic public services by the State simply makes these families and their contingent invisible, as if they did not exist. Even with denial of basic health services, not getting care at the health center for those from Vila Verde; in Education, not getting a place in the school or in the municipal network, because in addition to the origin, the lack of proof of residence is the bureaucratic expedient for the denial of fundamental rights; as well as social assistance.
During the pandemic, all reintegrations had been suspended by the Federal Supreme Court (STF) at the request of the Socialism and Freedom Party (PSOL) alongside the Homeless Workers Movement (MTST) and the Zero Eviction Campaign. After this period, on February 17, the Court of Justice of RS (TJ), in a final judgment, decided to remove the hundreds of families from the area, considered private, due to adverse possession made by the company Guerra, from Caxias do Sul , in 2011.
The TJ’s decision was forwarded to the court of origin in Osório and has a deadline for the repossession to be made until April 16. Since then, residents have been mobilized to resist and not leave the area, with weekly acts, both in the streets of Osório and also in public spaces, since there are no solutions indicated and there is a total lack of action on the part of the Legislative (occupied by four MDB councilors, four PDT councilors and one PP councilor) and the municipal executive.
The struggle for the constitutional right to housing and other deliberately violated human rights, orchestrated by those who should be responsible for giving minimal answers to thousands of people, is the only way out and solution so that they are not evicted, without destination, in addition to so many other related rights, such as education for the hundreds of children who are left unattended.
Vila Verde, resist! No to repossession. For the right to housing! While living is a privilege, occupying is a right!
* Professor of the state public network, biologist, specialist in Environment and Biodiversity (UERGS), Master in Rural Development (PGDR-UFRGS), militant of the Alicerce collective and of the PSOL/RS Ecosocialist Sector
** This is an opinion article. The author’s view does not necessarily express the editorial line of the newspaper Brazil in fact.
Source: BdF Rio Grande do Sul
Editing: Marcelo Ferreira
