Along with another 385 families in the area, she and her daughter were forced from their home when city hall ordered their removal to make way for a high-speed bus lane linking the international airport with Barra da Tijuca, the neighbourhood that will host most of the 2016 Olympic Games venues.
Complications over the legal status of the property mean the Josés have yet to receive any compensation. And with no money, the family has moved to an area where the rent is affordable, over 30km away from their original home.
“We have no friends here,” said Arlette’s daughter, Elizabeth. “My mother spends a lot of time just sitting on the sofa, weeping.”
According to figures from Rio de Janeiro city government, 22,059 families have been resettled since 2009, either because of their homes being labelled “at risk” or to make way for transport and other infrastructure projects related to the Rio 2016 Olympic Games.
City hall insists that the only resettlements related to the Games are those of the 344 families at Vila Autódromo, a favela on the fringes of the main Olympic Park. Many of those families have been relocated to Parque Carioca, a condominium complex 1km away.
But Theresa Williamson, the executive director of the Rio-based NGO Catalytic Communities, which lobbies for the recognition of the city’s favelas as the solution to its housing deficit, says that the local government is using the pretext of the Olympics to segregate the city.
“Wherever there is an Olympics, the level of transparency goes way down,” she said. “Whether it’s for the new BRT [the Bus Rapid Transit system] or the evictions at Vila Autódromo, the Olympics is the context for all of these resettlements.”
Dozens of bus lines have recently been axed, complicating yet further the journey into the city for many of its commuters. “This is part of an unofficial policy to divide the rich from the poor in Rio,” Williamson said.culled The Guardian
No comments:
Post a Comment