Paper short abstract:

This paper explores the housing struggles of squatters, wanting to be included in a slum upgrading project in the city of Salvador, Brazil, in order to be evicted and resettled to social housing. It analyses their dispute with the state and claims to the right to realize their dream of homeownership

Paper long abstract:

In recent years, slum dwellers have been removed from their homes in the community of São Bartolomeu, in the city of Salvador, Brazil. The forced resettlement was part of slum upgrading interventions under the urban development project 'Better Days', a name that alludes to the optimism it evoked. A key project component was the revitalisation of the São Bartolomeu Park, and hundreds of families who had lived in the park for decades were evicted and resettled to social housing.

These evictions attracted newcomers, who hoped that they too would be included in the project. They built a new squatter settlement on the fringes of the park next to one of the demolished slums. The squatters aspired to a better future as homeowners and by squatting they acted upon a rare opportunity for - hopefully - bringing this imagined future closer.

Through an ethnographic account of the squatters' struggle for housing, this paper explores the dispute between the state and the squatters and its outcome. It analyses their claim for the right to be resettled and why they both did and did not have this right. This is contextualized in view of Brazil's urban legislation that is based on the 'right to the city', and the national government's promotion of homeownership as a right for the poor.