Urban integration or reconfigured inequalities? Analyzing housing precarity in Sao Paulo, Brazil

The presence of precarious housing solutions, such as favelas and irregular settlements, is a basic feature of urban inequalities in Southern cities, and the predominant description of the international literature suggests social and housing homogeneity of these areas. They are known to be strongly affected both by economic conjunctures and by public policies, which changed intensely in Brazilian metropolises since the 1990s, transforming the existing housing precarity. This article discusses recent changes in housing precarity in the city of Sao Paulo, showing a reduction of its intensity, but the increasing heterogeneity of the situations. We estimate the population in favelas and irregular settlements and the socioeconomic indicators of their inhabitants and households recently, drawing on a study using Census data and Geographic information system techniques. The paper shows that nonetheless there was a significant improvement of life conditions in favelas and irregular settlements, which tend to be quite heterogeneous, there is a maintenance of considerable inequalities between these housing solutions and the entire rest of the city. (C) 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.