Case Study (Urban): Squatter Settlement - Rio De Janeiro

Urban Case Study: Squatter Settlement in Rio de Janeiro

Key Facts

• Rio de Janeiro is in South East Brazil.
• It has 600 squatter settlements known as favelas which house about 1 million people (one fifth of the city's population)
• The Favela-Bairro project started in 1995 and involved helping 253,000 people in 73 favelas. 
• It has been so successful that it is used as a model to redevelop other squatter settlements.
• The funding for the project was $300,000 - 40% came from the local authority and the rest from the Inter-American Development Bank.

There were many problems in Rio's favelas:

• Economic: There are not enough jobs to go round so unemployment is high. People are unskilled and so many work informally in low-end jobs for cash in hand. The work is irregular so people don't have a steady income
• Social: Healthcare is poor and people don't have enough money for medicines. Infant mortality rates are high and the average life expectancy is just 56.
• Environmental: People built their homes on steep slopes because no-one else wants to built here. This is very dangerous because of potential mud-slides. Homes are built from basic materials such as wood, corrugated iron and tarpaulin on land that is not owned or rented.

The project has brought…