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Ensuring the right to decent housing in Brazil is one of the country’s major challenges. In the pursuit of providing safe living conditions with infrastructure and basic services, authorities often resort to the involuntary resettlement of families. An application developed with support from the Inter-American Development Bank seeks to make this process more humane, giving voice and options to the affected population.
Since the impacts of involuntary resettlement are multidimensional, and its social, economic, and cultural costs are complex and difficult to measure, well-directed, monitored, and enforced safeguard policies are necessary. It is imperative to minimize disruption to the environment in which people live within the intervention area, avoiding or reducing the physical displacement and ensuring that when people are relocated, they are treated fairly and can share in the benefits of the intervention whenever possible.
What is Assisted Purchase?
Among the compensation options for involuntary resettlement, Assisted Purchase is an accessible and effective alternative to the construction of new housing units. In general terms, it is a replacement procedure through the acquisition of existing homes available on the real estate market, identified by the families and approved by the entity promoting the intervention. The purchase is called “assisted” because the family receives support from the public agency leading the urban investment throughout the entire process of searching for and acquiring the property. When well-managed, this modality offers greater dynamism to resettlement processes.
The Experience of Niterói with Assisted Purchase
In the Urban Development and Social Inclusion Program (PRODUIS), developed by the Municipality of Niterói with IDB support, Assisted Purchase was established as the main housing replacement measure for resettlement. Despite the municipality’s extensive experience with expropriation and family resettlement, Assisted Purchase was a novel approach for Niterói in 2018, requiring the creation of a methodology for work and management involving various municipal administrative bodies, the social team, families, and property sellers.
During the consolidation of real estate market research for the implementation of Assisted Purchase in PRODUIS factors had to be integrated, such as property location and condition, family needs, and compensation values, among others, to ensure an improvement in the quality of life for the resettled families while considering the financial constraints of property purchase prices
To disseminate information on Assisted Purchase and support, inspire, and guide other Executing Agencies interested in the subject, a reference document, Involuntary Resettlement with Assisted Purchase: The Experience of Niterói , was developed. The document provides a structured overview of the entire resettlement process carried out under PRODUIS using Assisted Purchase, highlighting the applied methodologies, institutional arrangements, and legal instruments used. Additionally, it includes practical examples implemented in Niterói, as well as lessons learned and best practices identified throughout the project.
The MoraLar App – Matching Families with Homes
From institutional learning and the challenges faced during the pandemic emerged the initial concept for the creation of a technological tool in the form of an application, MoraLar. The app was designed to organize, manage, and optimize Assisted Purchase workflows, enabling both more efficient monitoring during execution and greater engagement from the resettled population with the implemented actions.
Since MoraLar is an open-source technology application, it has the advantage of being a replicable and customizable solution for other Executing Agencies with similar demands. To better understand the app’s operation, watch the following video: App to facilitate assisted purchasing in compensation processes for resettlement and access the open-source code here: Https://code.iadb.org/en/tools/moralar.
The creation of the app required highly specific technological expertise, even for hiring the specialized company that would develop the tool. The solution found by the IDB and the Project Management Unit was to establish development requirements in open-source code, ensuring compatibility with web environments (Progressive Web Application) and/or mobile (Android). Testing, review, and validation phases were included before finalizing the application. Special attention was given to ensuring that the app’s features were user-friendly, intuitive, and easy for the beneficiary population to use.
It is essential to note that the app is a technological solution that requires a basic level of digital literacy for its effective use. Given the context of resettlement, where a diverse range of residents reside, including individuals unfamiliar with digital tools, the app should be considered a complementary tool. Its adoption should not replace but rather coexist with other mechanisms that facilitate property searches, ensuring accessibility for all involved.
So far, 41 resettlements have been carried out in Niterói through Assisted Purchase within PRODUIS. This pilot initiative also led to the creation of a municipal public policy on Assisted Purchase (Law No. 3,870 of December 28, 2023), which is already serving as a reference for other municipal programs. Expanding housing compensation options beyond traditional modalities such as the delivery of units in housing complexes, combined with the digitalization of the process through MoraLar, contributes to empowering families to take an active role in decision-making regarding their housing and partnerships with the real estate market.