Social Land Regularization in the Municipality of Santo André: Possibilities and Limitations
In 1991, the Municipality of Santo André established the Special Social Interest Zones and initiated actions aimed at promoting the regularization of slums. This work aims to discuss the procedures and results achieved in the period from 1991 to 2016. With this objective, an analysis of national and local level legislation was conducted and through documentary research and interviews it was possible to identify procedures, results and limitations of regularization processes. It was found that the majority of upgraded slums did not have their land regularization completed. Several factors hindered the regularization processes during the studied period, ranging from internal dynamics within the municipality related to administrative capacity and bureaucratic-normative impasses to external factors involving regional level legislation requirements and strict registration rules. However, the assessment is that the recognition of Special Social Interest Zones in the territory and the establishment of differentiated urban parameters, although not necessarily leading to significant outcomes in completed land regularization, were essential in providing security of ownership to occupants and enabling the municipality to work on the urbanization and land regularization of its precarious settlements.