SAO PAULO (AP) Sao Paulo's Housing Department estimates this city of more than 11 million people is short of adequate homes for at least 230,000 families. As a result, thousands of people are living in abandoned buildings downtown or in tents and flimsy shacks put up on any empty plot of land they can find.
Maria de Moraes, a 58-year-old widow, is one of 300 squatters who've fashioned tiny apartments in an old 12-story building once occupied by offices on a busy pedestrian street just a block from the chic Municipal Theater.
"This was my only option," said Moraes, whose 65-square-foot (6-square-meter) room is almost filled by a double bed with multicolored bedspread, a chest of drawers and a single chair. "I was paying about 600 reals ($260) a month for a small room on the outskirts and earning about the same in social security payments. ... I had nothing left over for food or medicine and would always have to ask neighbors for help."
She has to share a communal bathroom and kitchen with fellow squatters, but she does not pay rent.
About 700 people seized a hill next to the posh Morumbi neighborhood in late October, and set up tents in neat rows. They hope authorities will expropriate the land for housing.
