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Give me land ...
Source: Associated Press*

Brazil will spend more than $1-million to map two sprawling shantytowns as the first step toward granting land titles to residents who otherwise have no property rights in the sprawling slums, officials said.

Minister of Cities Marcio Fortes Almeida says the government will survey the Rocinha and Vidigal shantytowns, which drape two mountainsides overlooking some of the city's most famous beaches.

Without title, residents cannot finance home repairs, get credit or mail, or sell their property. They can also be evicted without legal recourse, a real fear in a city where entire slums – known as favelas – have been removed to make way for commercial developments.

Since 2003, 272,000 families nationwide have received titles to property in favelas and another 450,000 families are in the process of getting them, Mr. Almeida said.

“A right to property is like a right to citizenship,” he told a ceremony inaugurating the program in a humble white church in the heart of Rocinha.

The shantytowns sprung up at the end of the 19th century as freed slaves made their homes on unclaimed land, mostly along the city's steep hillsides. Later migrants from the country's poor northeast swelled the favelas.

Today, about one-fifth of Rio de Janeiro's six-million residents live in the slums. Many have been there for generations.

In recent years, the government has taken steps to incorporate the areas into the urban infrastructure, giving names to the streets and finally putting them on city maps.

“For many years, Rocinha has been like a ghost city; these property titles will give people a chance to prove they exist,” said Igor Mello, a property-rights activist employed by the program.

Mr. Almeida said families wishing to receive titles must be able to prove they have lived there for at least five years. The program is expected to benefit more than 5,000 families in the two favelas, he said.

Residents hope that by the beginning of next year they will have land titles, said William de Oliveira, president of the Rocinha residents association. Rocinha is reputed to be the largest shantytown in Latin America.

“We are called a neighbourhood, but we are not a neighbourhood,” Mr. Oliveira said. “We lack most of the things real neighbourhoods have.”