Residents of São Paulo Favela Use Monorail Fencing to Rebuild Their Houses After Fire

05/12/2015 - 09h44

Leaving church one Sunday last September, Angélica Cristina Lopes, 27, saw the Piolho favela in flames. Lopes had lived in the favela, located in the south of São Paulo, ever since she was a child.

She managed to rescue her personal documents and clothes for her two children, and went to the Avenida Jornalista Roberto Marinho to wait while the firefighters did their work.

Her house, made from concrete blocks, survived the blaze. But more than 600 families were made homeless.

Eight months on, her neighbors have begun to rebuild their houses on the same land, using safety fencing taken from the building work for the Line 17 (Gold) monorail, a key pledge of São Paulo state governor Geraldo Alckmin (PSDB).

Work on the monorail, which will connect Congonhas airport to Morumbi train station, is happening directly in front of the favela.

The white and orange fencing used to surround the work has been used by residents to provide structure to new shacks.

Residents say that police officers and security guards at the site did nothing to prevent them taking the fencing the night after the blaze.

However, the Military Police then started to arrest people who attempted to take the fencing, which had begun to appear on the black market.

Islaine Gonçalves, 20, a mother of two, was unable to get hold of the fencing "before prohibition." To build her house, she bought 20 sections from other people at US$3.27 (R$10) each.

"We lost everything in the fire and we couldn't get housing benefit [paid by the city government to the victims]. We still don't have a fridge or a proper bed, just a mattress. I'm scared there'll be another fire, but we don't have any way of getting out of here."

After people started taking the fencing, the construction firm in charge of the work began using fencing with arrow-shaped sections cut out, in order to prevent their use in the construction of new shacks.

Translated by TOM GATEHOUSE

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