The trajectory of social housing policy in Brazil: From the National Housing Bank to the Ministry of the Cities

This paper discusses social housing policy in Brazil since the 1990s by analyzing government programs��� institutional arrangements, their sources of revenues and the formatting of related ���nancial systems. The conclusion suggests that all these arrangements have not constituted a comprehensive housing policy with the clear aim of serving to enhance housing conditions in the country. Housing ���policies��� since the 1990s ��� as proposed by Fernando Collor de Mello, Itamar Franco, Fernando Henrique Cardoso and �� Luis Inacio Lula da Silva���s governments (in the latter case, despite much progress towards subsidized investment programs) ��� have sought to consolidate ���nancial instruments in line with global markets, restructuring the way private interests operate within the system, a necessary however incomplete course of action. Different from rhetoric, this has resulted in failure as the more fundamental social results for the poor have not yet been achieved.