Brazil: Lula relaunches Housing Delivery Plan.

By María Josefina Arce

Brazil has begun to reactivate social programs aimed at the most vulnerable sectors of society, implemented during the governments of the Workers' Party, which in the last four years, during the administration of the ultra-right-wing Jair Bolsonaro, have been dismantled.

In his two previous terms in office, Luiz Inácio Lula Da Silva, now president of the South American giant for the third time, carried out an intense fight against poverty, hunger and inequality. Nearly 30 million Brazilians were able to escape from this condition.

This is once again a priority, as the country bequeathed by the retired captain once again shows a deep gap between rich and poor. Misery and hunger have once again become part of Brazil's landscape.

Thus, the new government has taken up the "My House, My Life" initiative for the housing development of low-income families. Created in 2009, during Lula Da Silva's second term in the Planalto Palace, in 10 years more than five million residential units were contracted and nearly four million were delivered.

However, during Bolsonaro's administration, social spending was considerably reduced and the program was set aside.

In 2020, public investment was the lowest in the history of this initiative, while the following year Bolsonaro already vetoed 73% of the resources for the construction of housing for the poorest people.

As a result, the so-called favelas proliferated, where millions of Brazilians live in overcrowded conditions, with terrible hygienic and sanitary conditions, in many cases unemployed or inserted in the informal labor market.

Now the program, according to official media, should finance the construction of up to two million homes over a period of three years for the benefit of low-income families.

The authorities reported that work is expected to resume soon on the construction of more than 5,000 houses in several municipalities in Brazil.

"My House, My Life" will now include the possibility of social leasing, acquisition of used urban housing and options for homeless families.

Although it will not be an easy task, Lula Da Silva is committed to rebuilding a Brazil where there is no room for hunger, misery and inequality.