Preventive Resettlement of Populations at Risk of Disaster - GFDRR

In this option, families were temporarily moved from
their homes during the construction of the new housing,
infrastructure and sanitation. During that time,
families stayed in houses rented and paid for by SEHAB.
Both the families and SEHAB paid the water and electricity
bills; thus, families learned to incorporate such
utility outlays in their budgets.
5.3 Resettlement in Houses not
Affected by Floods in the Same
Favelas, or “Chess Game”
For families that did not want to move to the housing
complexes, either because the type of housing did not
match their needs or they could not afford even the subsidized
payments, a solution was found known as swapping
or the “chess game.” These families could exchange
the right to move to a housing complex with families in
the same favela but outside the affected area that wanted
to move to the housing complexes.
Meetings open to all favela inhabitants were organized
to explain the “chess game.” Participants identified those
who were not in at-risk areas or affected by the infrastructure
works but were interested in moving into the
housing complexes and whose houses would be available
for other families that would have to be resettled
but wanted to remain in the favela: 630 of the 3,786
families that moved to the housing complexes were part
of the “chess game.”
5.4 Cash Compensation for Property
Owners
For the 627 families with deeds, PROCAV did not include
them in the resettlement but rather compensated
them for their properties so they could move somewhere
else using their own funding. It was considered
that the amount they received for the expropriated
property was enough to cover the process to find and
purchase another property. In effect, these families resettled
themselves.
The cash compensation process was conducted by the
Legal Sector (Expropriation Division) and the Secretariat
of Finance (Secretaria de Finanças) of the São Paulo
city council. Initially, the plan was to pay fixed sums, but
that produced conflicts between families and the municipal
council, which delayed the project, as described
below in the evaluation section.
In PROCAV I, cash compensation was paid to nearly
1,000 families. It was known that these families generally
chose to move to other areas of São Paulo, especially
near rivers, where controls against land invasions were
lax at that time. Because there was no official follow-up,
no information is available about their experiences.
6. Social Management
Social management was closely coordinated with the
bodies responsible for executing the stream canalization
and constructing the housing complexes for the
resettled population, and with entities providing social
services (the Secretariats of Education, Health, Ecology
and the Environment, and Culture) and transportation
infrastructure (Secretariat of Transportation - Secretaria
dos Transportes).
A Resettlement Advisory Council (Conselho Consultivo
de Reassentamento) was established, composed of
SEHAB technical staff, personnel of the secretariats
involved in the resettlement process and community
representatives. The Council coordinated activities and
helped monitor the process. Local leaders and representatives
also were directly involved, as were non-governmental
organizations (NGOs) operating in the areas.
Families to be resettled in the housing complexes were
first registered through an updated census. This helped
determine the likely demand for education and health
52 Preventive Resettlement of Populations at Risk of Disaster: Experiences from Latin America