Social housing in urban revalorization contexts: considerations from the Rio de Janeiro experience

Abstract This article aims at contributing to the academic debate on the incorporation of the housing component into recent experiences of revalorization of urban downtown areas in Brazil. It presents the results found by a study about the production of social housing in downtown Rio de Janeiro. The reflections presented here derive from an analysis of a program called Novas Alternativas (New Alternatives), created in 1996 by the local government with the declared objective of encouraging home building in the central neighborhoods of Rio de Janeiro’s capital city. Through a review of the municipal government’s institutional publications about the theme and interviews with the program’s staff, this article uncovers the discursive components that support the actions of Rio de Janeiro’s local government in promoting the construction of home building.