⁍ More than 2,000 families have lost their homes in Sao Paulo state since March, with another 1,000 facing the same risk in upcoming weeks.

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⁍ The human rights and research group LabCidade estimates more than 2,000 families have lost their homes in Sao Paulo state since March.

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⁍ Since the first wave of 35 residents built shacks in Jardim Julieta in mid-March, another 765 families joined and 200 are in line.

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⁍ Most were evicted from their homes during the new coronavirus pandemic, at a time local authorities said they should stay home.

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– With more than 800 shacks of wood and plastic sheeting, there are already several thousand people living in what used to be a parking lot for trucks in one of the poorest areas of the city. “We didn’t even have the means to build the shack. We came with some plastic sheets,” Jussara de Jesus tells the AP. The growing number of evictions driven by Brazil’s COVID-19 pandemic is worsening an already serious housing problem in the country. Before the pandemic, local authorities counted more than 200,000 families waiting for adequate housing in Sao Paulo, a city of 12 million. The human rights and research group LabCidade estimates more than 2,000 families have lost their homes in Sao Paulo state since March, with another 1,000 facing the same risk in upcoming weeks. It is a high figure for a state with 46 million residents, about the same population as Spain. Raquel Rolnik, a former UN special investigator on adequate housing and a coordinator for LabCidade, says similar evictions have happened all over Brazil. “We will see many more people on the streets soon,” she says.