Removals and resettlements in Natal: Programs, Projects and Practices of the Public Power (2002 - 2016).
Housing policy; Removal of slums; Resettlements.
The Brazilian cities, especially the large and medium-sized ones, have been experiencing a complex situation for a number of years, due in large part to the accelerated urbanization process that has transformed the spatial and social structures of cities, causing a series of problems to emerge, among which We highlight the intensification of socio-spatial inequalities. The most visible results of this process can be identified from the fragmentation of cities and the formation of the dichotomy between the legal city versus the illegal city. More recently, in the mid-2000s, with the resumption of public investments in urban and social infrastructure, new perspectives emerged regarding the development of Brazilian cities. Investments in infrastructure and housing (with emphasis on interventions in favelas) have brought new dynamics to cities. However, despite the existence of important programs such as Habitar Brasil IDB in 1999 and PAT-PROSANEAR, created in 2000, investments in infrastructure and housing began to expand with the creation of the Urbanization, Regularization and Integration Program Of Precarious Settlements in 2003, the PAC in 2007, and the PMCMV in 2009. Several projects for urbanization, removal and resettlement of favelas were implemented in the cities, like Natal / RN. There is, within the municipality, a portfolio of intervention housing projects in favelas, ranging from specific interventions to large integrated projects. The projects managed by the Prefeitura do Natal operated on 15 slums in the four administrative regions of the city, between the years of 2002 and 2016. In this sense, the present work aims to make a study about these projects, seeking to identify how the public power in the processes of formulation and implementation of the same occurred in the referred period. For the accomplishment of this work, the exploratory research methodological procedure was adopted, using as base documents and official database, interviews with actors involved and field visits. To date, managers involved in the projects have been interviewed, while part of the official documents and academic papers already done on some projects have been analyzed.