With over 26 million inadequate dwellings, the right to the city demands that urban policy prioritize improving existing built environments.
*By João Vitor Martini and Daniel Luis Notari
For years, Brazilian urban planning has prioritized the expansion of cities through the production of new housing units and the large-scale implementation of infrastructure. This model relegated the improvement of existing cities to a secondary position and treated housing as a specific or private issue, despite its fundamental role in urban policy.
This movement helps explain why the country's main housing challenge lies in the precariousness of existing housing. Data from the João Pinheiro Foundation indicates that more than 26 million homes present some type of inadequacy, such as lack of adequate ventilation and sunlight, lack of a bathroom, lack of adequate sanitation, insufficient infrastructure, or structural risks. These are situations that frequently coexist and directly impact the dignity and quality of life of families.
A large portion of these dwellings were built without formal technical assistance, highlighting the centrality of self-production in the process of city formation, often outside the scope of public policies for qualification. When located in environmentally fragile areas, vulnerability is exacerbated, as expansion into at-risk areas exposes thousands of people to extreme weather events, reinforcing precarious housing and territorial fragility, intensifying socio-environmental risks, and deepening inequalities.
This precarious situation primarily affects families headed by women, mostly Black women, revealing how inequalities of gender, race, and income materialize in the territory and in housing conditions, since the built space reflects the historical distribution of income and access to services and opportunities.
The scope of this data highlights the importance of public management guided by accurate territorial information, capable of identifying vulnerabilities, directing investments, and finding solutions to improve existing housing.
Given this scenario, housing improvement should be incorporated as a structuring public policy, capable of intervening in housing conditions and addressing territorial inequalities. By improving structural, sanitation, and health issues, the public authorities act preventively on vulnerabilities that subsequently overburden other areas, such as public health.
Recent experiences indicate that this change in perspective is feasible. In Porto Alegre, the inclusion of architects in the Unified Health System (SUS), working alongside primary care teams, represents progress in integrating urban policy and healthcare. By recognizing the home as part of the healthcare teams' area of operation, housing improvement is established as a preventive strategy, bringing planning, public health, and technical assistance closer together in addressing everyday vulnerabilities.
The challenge lies in expanding this logic beyond isolated experiences. Credit programs for renovations have the potential to reach a wide audience, but without technical assistance, they risk reproducing existing inadequacies, which highlights that housing improvement requires accurate diagnosis, professional monitoring, and intersectoral coordination.
The right to the city begins with the condition of having decent housing. It is from this that access to health, work, education, and remaining in the territory is made possible. Treating housing improvement as a public policy means acting directly on the structure that sustains urban life and affirming that dignity begins with the quality of the space where people live.
João Vitor Martini: Architect and urban planner graduated from the University of Caxias do Sul (UCS), he is a master's student in the Postgraduate Program in Planning and Management of Sustainable Cities. He works at the interface between urban planning and social housing, developing interventions in consolidated urban territories, with experience in technical consulting and citizen participation processes. He is the founder and project coordinator of the NGO Terra Coletiva and a founding partner of Tairu Arquitetura e Urbanismo.
Dr. Daniel Luis Notari: Researcher at the ABES Think Tank and the City Living Lab/PPGA – University of Caxias do Sul (UCS). Professor at UCS since August 2000. Graduated in Computer Science from UCS, Master's in Computer Science from UFRGS, and PhD in Biotechnology from the University of Caxias do Sul (UCS). My areas of interest include programming, databases, and software engineering. I teach undergraduate courses in computer science, the Master's program in Applied Computing, the Master's program in City Planning and Management, as well as the Master's/PhD program in Administration. My research lines involve Data Engineering, especially in smart cities, knowledge-based development, and bioinformatics.
Notice: The opinion expressed in this article is the responsibility of its authors and not of ABES – Brazilian Association of Software Companies
Article originally published on the Portal CSC website: https://portal.connectedsmartcities.com.br/2026/03/04/a-moradia-como-territorio-de-politica-publica/
