State’s action in the production of the informal city: a spatial analysis in Florianópolis

Abstract The thesis that the Brazilian state tolerates and encourages urban squatting as a response to its own inability to provide popular housing and to guarantee jobs that enable the acquisition of housing in the real estate market is tested in this article through the case study of Florianópolis. We studied irregularity and two indications of municipal action in its consolidation in Florianópolis: implementation of community facilities and issuance of construction permits. We found that construction permits are limited only by registration restrictions, not by the existence or not of land ownership, and that the municipality works actively in the production of health, education, and transport facilities, but not of leisure facilities in these areas.