In the 20th century, some initiatives sought to solve part of the housing problem. Between 1933 and 1938, for example, during Getúlio Vargas's administration, the Retirement and Pension Institutes were created, which could use part of their funds for housing programs and financed construction mainly in Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo. In Rio, the institutes took over the areas of Avenida Brasil and the city's suburbs. In addition to these forms of housing organization, there were the workers' villages of the textile factories, which emerged starting in the 1880s and occupied several neighborhoods – preferably those with easy access to water, such as Gávea, Laranjeiras, Jardim Botânico, Tijuca, and Vila Isabel.
Image description: This is an old photograph of a housing complex. The image shows several buildings arranged in an open area, with a central road dividing the site. On the left, there are smaller buildings with sloped roofs, while on the right there is a large industrial building with many windows. In the background, there is a green area with trees and dense vegetation. In the bottom right corner, there is a text that reads "C.Tyusa Fábrica de tecidos Rio".The Workers' Village of Companhia Tijuca de Tecidos. To the right, the factory building; to the left, the Workers' Village. Photo by Augusto Malta – 1907. Augusto Malta Photographic Archive/Museu da Imagem e do Som.
In the 1950s and 1960s, programs aimed at removing favelas emerged, mainly those in the South Zone. During Carlos Lacerda's administration in the 1960s, populations were transferred to the housing complexes of Cidade de Deus, Vila Aliança, Vila Esperança, and Vila Kennedy, in the city's West Zone. In the previous decade, however, some residents of Favela da Praia do Pinto had already been relocated to Conjunto Habitacional Cruzada São Sebastião, built in the highly valued area of Jardim de Alá, in the same South Zone, through the aid program for the poor run by bishop Dom Helder Câmara.
Image description: This is a black-and-white photograph of a housing complex. On the left side, we see simple houses with tiled roofs and light-colored walls. A person is walking down the street on the left, followed by two children carrying containers on their heads. On the right, there is a house with closed windows and a large tree near it. In the background, there is a hill covered with vegetation.Residents relocated to the housing projects suffered from a lack of water supply. In the image above, children carry water cans in the Vila Kennedy housing project, opened in 1964. Photo by Manoel - 1965. Correio da Manhã Collection/ Arquivo Nacional.
The case of Favela da Praia do Pinto is significant for understanding the issue of favela removals, as it sparked a heated debate between Governor Lacerda and Bishop Dom Helder Câmara. The bishop developed a program to assist the poor that included offering better housing conditions for the residents of Favela da Praia do Pinto, and he built a housing complex in one of the city's most upscale areas: Jardim de Alá. On land donated by the Mitra, he created the Conjunto Habitacional da Cruzada de São Sebastião, to which the favela's residents were relocated. Today, the Cruzada stands near Shopping Leblon, Clube Paissandu, and the shores of Lagoa Rodrigo de Freitas.
One of the most important concepts of low-income housing in Brazilian architecture in Rio de Janeiro was the housing complexes resulting from Carmen Portinho's policy at the Federal District's Department of Popular Housing, which brought together architecture, city, and society. Affonso Reidy, for his part, added the master's touch, creating a design that grasped the traditions of tenement housing and elevated them to a place of prominence in the improvement of living conditions, doing away with overcrowding, lack of hygiene, and disease, and proposing freedom to live and move about. The Prefeito Mendes de Moraes (Pedregulho) and Marquês de São Vicente (Minhocão) residential complexes are the most emblematic examples.
Image description: This is a black-and-white photograph of a housing complex. On the left side, we see a simple building with a main entrance and a wall decorated with geometric patterns. In the background, there is a large building with curved shapes and many windows. On the right, there are trees and a small concrete structure. In the foreground, there is a sidewalk and an old parked car.Views of the construction works of the Pedregulho Residential Complex. Agência Nacional Collection/ Arquivo Nacional.
