Insurgent property relations and the spatio-legal work of housing the urban poor: the case of the Prestes Maia occupation in São Paulo

ABSTRACT In São Paulo, squatting movements provide an alternative route to housing for members. At the same time, they highlight the city’s housing deficit and high rates of property vacancy. This article analyses the spatio-legal work at one of these squats, known as the Prestes Maia occupation, by one housing movement, the ‘Movimento Moradia, Luta e Justiça’ (Housing Struggle and Justice Movement) under the three rubrics of imaginaries, practices and materiality. The paper argues that the movement is not simply lacking property. Rather they are creating insurgent property relations by imagining property differently through slogans and key terms such as ‘luta’ (struggle) that permeated interviews with coordinators and residents at the occupation. They practice property differently by creating novel entanglements of private/collective life at the occupation and in seeking state recognition for the occupation. The movement exploits the building’s differential materiality to situate their community politically as well as physically. The discussion is based on semi-structured interviews with residents, coordinators, the support network of the occupation and local government officials over a six-month period. The study seeks to contribute to the understanding of property relations beyond narrow parameters of formal state validated property rights.