Two Possible Unfavourable Events and Their Countermeasures

USD). However, this zoning classification does not guarantee legal tenure or the offering of infrastructure. Specifically, ZEIS 4 designates vacant or underutilized land for housing of social interest. Unlike other ZEIS, the type 4 ZEIS only allows low-density housing development due to environmental concerns. In the case of Ocupação Anchieta, it is to protect the watersheds.

According to the current zoning of the site, the city can develop the area to build social housing for families living in areas of environmental risk at any time. The municipality would need to relocate residents currently living in areas of risk. In fact, the municipality had a plan to build social housing at the site, which would be funded by My House, My Life program (Minha Casa Minha Vida) (MCMVP), but the city did not proceed (City of São Paulo Strategic Master Plan, 2014, UN-Habitat, 2013).

No stakeholder can change the legal process or prevent the municipal government from taking the land to develop social housing. In this situation, residents of Ocupação Anchieta would not immediately benefit from a government social housing program, such as MCMVP, because of the environmental precariousness of the site, and because they simply have not been on the waiting list long enough. In 2015, IAG encouraged Occupation residents to enlist in the housing program. The Occupation may receive public housing eventually, but it cannot receive governmentbuilt social housing at the current site.

TWO POSSIBLE UNFAVORABLE EVENTS AND THEIR COUNTERMEASURES

Beyond the scenario of land expropriation by the municipal government, the Taubman College Team identified two possible scenarios that, combined with the Team’s environmental recommendations for the creek running through Ocupação Anchieta, could help boost tenure security. These recommendations can help residents deal with events that are currently beyond their control. Additionally, the residents’ ideas and efforts to clean the creek area are critical to advance their cause. The two concerning events are as follows:

1.Public prosecutors (Ministério Público) may initiate a civil investigation on the area of environmental preservation and conclude that residents have been damaging the environment. Theoretically, public prosecutors can sue the municipality to force relocation of the residents in order to preserve the environment.

2.IAG files another adverse possession lawsuit against the residents, requiring eviction. Property owners may insist that the land is a preservation area, and the residents are damaging it by polluting the creek and deforestation. The current eviction lawsuit has been suspended for twelve months, which expire in August 2017.

The Association can circumvent the negative effects of these scenarios by embracing environmental stewardship. The Taubman Team developed specific action steps regarding housing upgrades to aid the Association in the process towards more sustainable housing arrangements. As a result, residents’ tenure security may increase. The Association will need to carefully monitor the change and success of legal and political dynamics with the area and tenure security. All priority areas in this report have the goals of increasing tenure security, restoring the environment, and improving infrastructure and living conditions.