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Photo - Habitat para a Humanidade Brasil |
Housing Microfinance: an opportunity that deserves our focus
With about 3,100 houses built all over 20 cities of eight Brazilian States (Ceará, Goiás, Pernambuco, Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo, Minas Gerais, Tocantins and Rio Grande do Sul), Habitat for Humanity Brazil has given the opportunity of low income families access a modality of financing that provides them the right to decent, affordable and safe homes. This credit granted by HFH Brazil is destined to families with monthly income of up to three minimum wages, and this sum can be paid back in up to 72 months, provided the installments does not exceed 20% of the familiar income.
The challenge of the housing financing
The latest inflation report of the Central Bank of Brazil (BACEN), from December 2006, says that the housing financing granted by the Brazilian regular finance system was exponentially increased in the last four years. The outlays of the saving funds for the housing sector had jumped from USD$ 600 million to USD$ 3,7 billion and this amount was destined for the financing of over than 90,000 houses. The applications of the Length of Service Guarantee Fund (FGTS), managed by CAIXA, reached USD$ 2,75 million, contributing to the resources offering to housing sector.
Despite of these investments, the housing financing couldn’t be accessed by those who needed it more. In accordance with a research by Getúlio Vargas Foundation in the year 2006, 33% of the Brazilian population has familiar income of up to two minimum wages. It is the purpose that makes hard their access to the regular modalities of credit. Besides, many families face the bureaucracy of the system, while others, aiming reducing the costs of the buildings, choose the “do-it-yourself” system, even thought without correct orientation and, sometimes, resulting in inadequate constructions, reforms and expansions.
The capillary government subsidy
Front this situation, HFH Brazil, in partnership with the CAIXA and diverse supporters from public and private spheres and also from other social organizations, has successfully granting the credit also to families with monthly income of up to only one minimum wage. This was possible with a credit facility subsidized by resources of the FGTS.
In the rural community of Varjada, for example, located in the city of Passira (Pernambuco State), HFH Brazil and its partners had started in June of last year the building 50 houses. The credit granted by the organization to each family was equivalent to USD$ 3,750 with 72 months of stated period for payment. To make possible families with one minimum wage have access to the credit, it was granted a government subsidy equivalent to USD$ 3,000 for each family, incurring into a final financing of only USD$ 750 each (with a monthly interest tax of 0,5%). This initiative of the Brazilian Federal Government, currently known as Resolution CCFGTS number 518, aims to foment programs of popular habitation in partnership with social organizations and municipalities, as HFH Brazil and its partners. As result, the subsidy significantly reduced the cost of the monthly installment established to the families, which, in Varjada, was about UDS$ 15. 1 Joined to this micro credit, the families received assessorship to help in the building process, qualification trainings (as Financial Literacy), and daily support from an agent of credit education. After one year, the Varjada project presents the rate of insolvency of 0%, including some families anticipating their installments. This year, other 24 houses could be built with this credit modality.
In São Leopoldo city, Rio Grande do Sul State, HFH Brazil are integrating the committee of local partners, that also has representatives from the cooperatives Bomfim and Progresso, the CAIXA and the City Hall. This group had established a contract with 240 families who will receive subsidized credit, building assessorship, Financial Literacy and will be oriented by a credit agent. The families have an income of less than one minimum wage. Even so, the credit was granted (between USD$ 1,100 and USD$ 1,700, depending on necessity and capacity of payment). The stated period of this operation is up to 46 months.
In the North of the country, at Guarai city, 60 families are having access to the micro credit this month. The average financing will be about US$ 1,250 with 0,5% of monthly interest tax and 72 two months for amortization. The families already had participated of the initial modules of Financial Literacy, involving subjects as HFH history, importance of getting a credit, importance of the credit of HFH, expenses and investments, cost of the house, amongst others. Besides, theses first 60 families, it is foreseen by the end of the year other 118 families from Colinas city, also located at Tocantins State, will have the opportunity of conquer its decent home by means of the HFH Brazil (and its partners) micro credit.
The good satisfaction of allowing low income families have the access to a methodology that cross subsidy with financial and not financial services, aiming the promotion of the local community development by means of making possible a simple and decent housing, is exactly what became microfinance for housing an opportunity that deserves our focus.
If you want to support this initiative or ask for further information contact us at: andre@habitatbrasil.org.br
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Ms. Magda Andréia Vieira with her husband and children - foto por Viviane de Araújo |
The national agreement between HFH and Amanco Group in Brazil
In August 2004, Habitat for Humanity Brazil established an Alliance with Amanco Group in Brazil. This was motivated by the successful international partnership that has been settled up in several countries around Latin America and the Caribbean, as Ecuador, Honduras and El Salvador.
The national partnership results from an affinity of intentions based on the building of a better world, pondering social, environmental and sustainable development factors. Therefore, the vision of Habitat for Humanity of a “world where everyone has a decent place to live” makes the organization looks for initiatives that can improve the life quality low income families when designing its projects. This can be reached by means of the building of simple, decent and affordable houses, provided they are in harmony with the environment. This concern is also related to the construction materials used in our workmanships and environmental impacts caused by them.
Amanco has been gradually concentrating on Management of environmental impacts of its productive cycle, besides having a close and transparent relationship with its main strategic public: collaborators, communities, customers and suppliers. Moreover, the company works to offer products and services in attendance with its exigencies of health, security and environment preservation. It also participates actively of communities’ development processes in localities it has factories settled up. So, we know that when we buy a product by Amanco, this previous care in the production cycle of the pipes and accessories was made under a correct and ecologically sustainable way.
The partnership has three different levels: Business, Social and Relationship. Talking about the business scope, the agreement foresees the commitment of the pipes and accessories supply by Amanco for all building projects of HFH in Brazil. It is an opportunity of buying high quality products with a price lowest than that practiced in the market. This action helps to decrease the cost of the houses built by the organization as well as to guarantee the quality and origin of the materials used in our workmanships.
Regarding to the social level, the goal of the partnership is the development of strategic actions in order to involve both employees and the target public of Amanco in activities that provides the community where the company is located have access to decent housing. It can be done by integrated actions with what HFH Brazil is already implanting on its projects, since the building of houses and the Financial Literacy courses, until Advocacy.
Finally, the relationship, under the perspective of this alliance, is a way of joining efforts between the contact networks of these two institutions aiming to develop initiatives that could make possible a bigger interference in the process of building a better world.
To Marcos Bicudo, president of Amanco in Brazil, this agreement strengthens the commitment of the company in contributing straightly to the development and the improvement of the society in which it is inserted in, having the ultimate goal of promoting the citizens prosperity with the company growing. Amanco believes that by adding the three results (economic, social and environmental), it will be possible to the society have a sustainable development. Therefore, any action or product developed by the company has economic advantages, offers benefits to the society and is concerned with the preservation and sustainable of the environment.
For further information about this partnership, contact us at: antoniojose@habitatbrasil.org.br
Accessible Houses: A Challenge for HFH Brazil
The vision of Habitat for Humanity expresses a future where we will be living in “a world where everyone has a decent place to live”. By decent place or, instead, decent house, we call that one which has the minimum conditions of habitability, such as security, comfort, salubrity, proximity of transportation and public services, job opportunities, accessibility, amongst others.
But what does “accessibility” means in the context of an inclusive society? In general, the term is related to the easiness in obtaining and using properties and services: it may be the access to education or information, for instance. However, when we talk about a city, a street or a house, we are speaking about a specific type of accessibility, which elapses of the relationships established between the people and the environment.
In accordance with the Brazilian norm technique NBR-9050, accessibility means the “existence of venues, buildings, furniture, urban equipments, and other spaces and elements that can be made use of by anyone, regardless of any physical, sensorial or cognitive limitations”. The norm presents some restrictions, but we won’t promote a theoretical discussion about the concept in this moment. It is most important that the norm incorporates the model of the inclusive society when assumes that these accessible objects must be reached, be used and be lived by any person, also by those with deficiencies or reduced mobility.
If we observe that every person is liable to have, in some moment of life, certain degree of immobility – even if it remains only for a while – we will realize that the limitations are more related to the incompatibility between the physical environment and the people than to the “deficiencies”.
In practice, to become a space more accessible to people is an action that implies in removing several architectural barriers which limit the freedom of movement, the circulation, the reach, the approach and the use. We are talking about entrances with stairs; crooked and narrow passages without enough space for wheelchairs; door handles, activators, interrupters or buttons impossible to be reached by everybody; tables, rows of seats or counters so high that wheelchairs users or aged, convalescent and low stature people can’t use them.
Therefore, some changes are extremely necessary in housing projects. Many of them must, also, contemplate not only the houses destined to people with deficiencies live, but need allow these people can visit their neighbors. It is clear these changes can imply in increasing of the building area and the final cost of the project. However, these costs can be incorporated if we have specific subsidies or sponsors. We must have in mind that the resultant benefits are very bigger that the costs, mainly those related to the inclusion and autonomy of the users.
Aiming to include these changes in our projects, HFH Brazil, by means of Habitation Solutions Coordination, has invested in the sensitization and qualification of the team members. On April, they’d participated of a course about Accessibility for Universal Design, promoted by the Regional Counsel of Architecture and Urbanism of Pernambuco (CREA-PE) in partnership with the Institute of Qualification. The next step is to establish a committee that shall define possibilities and strategies for the implementation of this process. One of the first actions of this group will be search partnerships with social movements and research centers specialized in accessibility, besides internal spreading of the main points of the norms techniques (NBR). However, we believe that before being fitted in the specified minimum requirements of these norms, it is necessary to understand that the promotion of the accessibility concept is pointing out to the building of a society with fewer inequalities. It is, over all, an ethical and moral issue.
Further information about NBR-9050 at:
http://www.mj.gov.br/sedh/ct/corde/dpdh/corde/normas_abnt.asp
If you want to support this initiative, contact us at: marcio@habitatbrasil.org.br
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