On August 24th, 800 families were evicted from an encampment in Sao Paulo, Brazil by riot police using tear gas and rubber bullets. The evicted families refused temporary housing or bus fare offers from the local government. With support from aid organizations, the families will continue pushing for a permanent social housing solution given the hundreds of thousands of abandoned buildings in the city that could be used for housing as required by law.

1. Tear gas and rubber bullets as families evicted On August 24, 800 families were evicted from the Olga Benario encampment in the south of Brazil’s biggest city, Sao Paulo

2. Witnesses reported riot police using tear gas and rubber bullets. CAFOD has condemned the police action as “outrageous”

3. Meanwhile the families have refused to accept the local government’s offer of temporary accommodation or a bus fare back to their place of birth

4. Felicia Mendes from our partner APOIO says: “We have struggled so this unoccupied land can be handed over to local government for social housing. We’ll keep going until the end"

5. Under Brazilian law the government is obliged to claim disused buildings for social housing. With CAFOD’s support, APOIO will continue to push for a permanent solution to the city’s housing problems

6. With 15,000 homeless in the city and millions living in sub-standard housing, there are still 420,000 sites which could be claimed for housing, including around 40,000 abandoned buildings

7. Picture Credits: Cátia Toffoletto (slides 1-4, used under creative commons licence); Joelle Hernandez; Marcella Haddad You can help those without a home – find out more and join an urgent action at: cafod.org.uk/olgabenario