Metropolitan problems

In the late 1960s and throughout the 1970s, São Paulo benefited from the rapid expansion of the Brazilian economy. The city became enormously richer and the size of its middle class increased dramatically. At the same time, poverty and the numbers of people living in poverty worsened. In 1990, São Paulo contained 10 per cent of Brazil's population and 11 per cent of its labour force, but also 20 per cent of persons earning more than 10 times the minimum salary. But, although it had a higher proportion of high-income people than any other Brazilian city - 48,000 families were earning more than US$100,000 per annum - vast numbers earned very little. Indeed, in 1990, 850,000 people earned less than the minimum wage. Unfortunately, the living conditions of the very poor have not been improving. Rather, the 1980s and early 1990s saw a deterioration in conditions in the metropolitan area: employment, housing, transport, education, health, and crime all got worse.

Employment and unemployment

Trends in employment and unemployment in Greater São Paulo between 1985 and 1993 reflect those in Brazil as a whole (table 10.3). After the difficulties of the early 1980s, rates of unemployment had fallen by the end of the decade, only to rise rapidly during the 1990s. By 1992, there were more than 1.2 million unemployed people in the city, 16 per cent of the economically active population. In addition, there were strong signs of a growth in casual forms of employment. The proportion of the labour force that was self-employed rose from 16 per cent in 1986 to 21 per cent in 1993. The proportion that was working without a work permit (carteira assinada) rose from a minimum of 19 per cent in 1989 to 23 per cent in January 1993 (Fundação SEADE, 1991 and 1993). The employment situation in Greater São Paulo has undoubtedly deteriorated.

Table 10.3 Employment and unemployment in Greater São Paulo, 1985-1993

	Economically active	Unemployed	Unemployment
Year	population (000s)	(000s)	rate (%)
1985	6,415	795	12.4
1986	6,665	647	9.7
1987	6,871	666	9.7
1988	6,933	652	9.4
1989	7,100	596	8.4
1990	7,285	809	11.1
1991	7,553	899	11.9
1992	7,784	1,253	16.1
1993	7,948	1,224	15.4

Source: Fundação SEADE, 1993.
a. Estimate for July.

The unemployment problem is far worse in the periphery than in the municipality of São Paulo. The city's Blacks are also much more likely to be unemployed than other heads of household (Fundação SEADE, 1991 and 1993). Similarly, there are large numbers of young people engaged in casual forms of employment; in 1985, one in three workers under 18 years of age was employed without a work certificate. Nevertheless, it is not only the poor who are suffering; employment difficulties are also affecting skilled workers. For example, unemployment among workers with previous salaried work experience rose from 10 per cent in 1988 to 16 per cent in 1993 (Fundação SEADE, 1991).

Housing conditions

The housing situation is a visual reflection of what is happening in the rest of São Paulo society. Recent estimates refer to a housing deficit of more than one million units in a metropolitan area with 3.9 million homes. Ten thousand people live on the streets. In 1992, two-thirds of all homes fell into some category of low-quality shelter (favela houses built of flimsy materials, households living in overcrowded conditions, etc.). In 1991, 28 per cent of homes lacked a connection to the water system, and 50 per cent were not linked to the sewerage system (figure 10.2).

Figure 10.2 Municipality of São Paulo: Drainage network and social segregation, 1987 (Source: PMSP, 1990)

Around 70 per cent of all homes have been built through self-help methods and the proportion rises to 90 per cent in some peripheral municipalities (Santos, 1990: 43). A significant number of these homes offer their inhabitants very poor shelter. The proliferation of favelas is a comparatively new phenomenon in São Paulo: in 1973, there were only 73,000 favelados, today there are 1.1 million. In 1991, 11.3 percent of the population lived in this form of housing, compared to only 1.1 per cent in 1973 (Veras and Taschner, 1992). There are now 1,600 favelas in the city, the largest, Héliopolis, accommodating some 50,000 people.

The pressure on some people to build their own home has led to a considerable shift in the tenure structure of the city. Whereas 41 per cent of families rented homes in 1972, the figure in 1990 was only 28 per cent. Nevertheless, the cortiços still represent a principal form of shelter available to the poor. Even if the proportion of families living in rental accommodation is in decline, the absolute numbers of tenants has been increasing rapidly, from 125,000 people in 1975 to 500,000 in 1982 and three million today. Many of the 88,000 cortiços in existence in 1987 were in a very bad state of repair (Pinheiro, 1992). In a survey in the municipality of São Paulo in 1986, only 19 per cent of homes had their own kitchen and fewer than 6 per cent their own tap. In four-fifths of the cortiços surveyed, an average of 2.6 people lived in every room, the rooms varying in size from 8 to 15 square metres.

The growth of rental accommodation in the central areas is due to the deteriorating employment situation and the growing importance of casual forms of work. Since the central areas contain the best locations for casual work and the real cost of transportation has been rising rapidly, many families have been forced into this kind of accommodation.

Transportation

Transportation is another serious problem in São Paulo. Its quality is poor, its services are not expanding sufficiently rapidly, and fares are rising faster than the incomes of the poor. One consequence is that the number of journeys per person has been diminishing over time. In 1987, every inhabitant made 1.15 journeys per day compared to 1.53 ten years earlier. The change has affected passengers whatever their income. Using education as an income indicator, the average daily journeys made by those with university education fell from 3.26 in 1977 to 2.81 in 1987; for those with primary education the average fell from 0.86 to 0.58. The greater percentage fall in average journeys for the latter group is symptomatic of the deterioration in public transport facilities. Indeed, the numbers of journeys on public transport diminished slightly between 1987 and 1991 despite the rise in the metropolitan region's total population. In the municipality of São

Paulo, the number of bus journeys fell by 4 per cent between 1992 and 1993, the number of buses in operation by 12 per cent.

Various efforts have been made in recent years to improve the service and the current municipal administration is planning to privatize public transport services in the next two years. The municipality will remain in charge of overall coordination and technological development.

Health

The quality of health care in the city is also deteriorating. Although the number of doctors has been increasing, the urban population has been growing faster. This does not just represent a failure to keep up with population increase, for the numbers of hospital beds and of hospital ancillary staff fell absolutely between 1977 and 1987 (Santos, 1992: 33). Hospital-bed occupancy rates have fallen to only 73 per cent, and many hospitals have been closing wards. No doubt the occupancy problem is accentuated by the distribution of hospital facilities: two-thirds of all hospitals are located in the central areas and 40 of the 54 public hospitals are found in middle-class neighbourhoods (Fundação SEADE, 1993).

Education

The educational system is also in dire straits. In the lower grades, the number of students is growing so quickly that the system cannot cope. Matriculation into primary schools rose annually by 3.5 per cent in eleven years after 1980; a total of 3.1 million children registered in 1991 (Fundação SEADE, 1993). At the primary level, the number of private pupils is expanding fast, although at present that is not true of secondary education. The problems of secondary education are perhaps best reflected in the fact that 11 per cent of 17-yearolds are neither in work nor in education.

Pollution

Water pollution is getting worse despite official efforts to protect the city's water sources. Recent legislation, intended to limit urban growth in the areas near the reservoirs, has failed (figure 10.3). Indeed, a significant share of urban expansion has occurred precisely in those areas, invasion settlements and illegal subdivisions having occupied large areas of protected land. Rising levels of pollution in the reservoirs have posed major problems for the Environmental Technology and Sanitation Company (CETESB).

Figure 10.3 Metropolitan São Paulo: Land use and major sub-centres, 1993 (Source: EMPLASA, 1993)

At least, some success has been achieved against the major air polluters, CETESB having convinced the 162 major polluters (responsible for 96 per cent of particulate emissions) to follow their recommended procedures. Even so, recommended air pollution levels are being exceeded in terms of suspended dust and smoke levels. Prescribed maxima for levels of ozone, carbon monoxide, and sulphur dioxide are also regularly exceeded and CETESB has been forced to introduce special measures during the winter, when the effects of temperature inversions are at their worst. The city's 4.5 million cars are a particular problem with respect to air pollution, especially in the central areas.

Crime

There has been a sharp and worrying rise in the crime rate. Recorded crimes against the person increased annually by 7 per cent over a twenty-year period, from 41,000 in 1973 to 162,000 in 1991. Property crime rose even more quickly, with an annual increase of 9.3 per cent during the same period (Pastore et al., 1991: 69; (Fundação SEADE/ Estado de São Paulo, 1992).2 Crime has been increasing in all parts of the city but especially in the central area. The likely causes are rising unemployment, increasing levels of drug use, deterioration in family values, and the rising numbers of children living in the street (often themselves the victims of crimes of violence). The perpetrators of crime are certainly not confined to the lower ranks of society: during the last three years between 5 and 10 per cent of recorded criminals came from the middle class. The police themselves are also committing more crimes: deaths at the hands of the police rose from 165 in 1983 to 1,350 in 1992 (Pinheiro, 1991: 95; Folha de São Paulo, 31 May 1993).