The combination of mass urbanization, overpopulation and continuous migration from rural areas into cities is creating serious habitat problems in São Paulo, the sixth largest city in the world. Space and affordable rent are even more scarce. With nearly 20 million people, the city has an overpopulated central core, with at least 10,000 homeless people downtown. Two-thirds of the city's population lives in periphery settlements, with commutes up to three hours long by public transit into the city. São Paulo is expected to hold 20 million people by 2015.
As immigrants flood the periphery, environmental damage and crowding become bigger problems. This social inequality has pushed thousands of families to begin squatting in the more than 40,000 abandoned buildings in the city, creating impromptu communities. Photographer Carlos Cazalis spent three years documenting this habitat and its social problems.
In this picture, an airplane flies over southern São Paulo as it prepares to land at Congonhas Airport.
A hole in the wall of the Prestes Maia 911 building illuminates the downtown area of São Paulo. In 2002, the building was occupied by 250 families from the Movimento Sem Teto do Centro in an effort to convince city hall to provide the homeless with a dignified home. The building had been abandoned for 15 years and has only recently become of economic interest to the owner and city hall, now that government has decided to revitalize the downtown area.
Carlos Cazalis
Commuter trains arrive in the Bras Central train terminal of downtown São Paulo at 5:30 a.m., carrying hundreds of thousands of people traveling from periphery settlements. By 7 a.m., the station will return to normal commuter traffic. Commuters often need to travel by subway, bus, and foot in order to finally arrive at work.
Carlos Cazalis
As her daughter looks on (left), Samara, who is eight months pregnant, is carried away by her husband and neighbors after fainting during an eviction protest. More than 250 families have been squatting in their 22-story high rise for over four years.
Carlos Cazalis
Anti-riot police storm squatters protesting their eviction.
Carlos Cazalis
Squatters listen to one of their leaders during the first day of occupation of an abandoned hotel in downtown São Paulo. Rent per square meter in the community housing projects is sometimes 90 percent higher than the common market.
Carlos Cazalis
A view of the urbanized, overpopulated city, which is expected to reach 20 million people by 2035.
Carlos Cazalis
Security personnel oversee a helicopter takeoff on the rooftop of Safra bank in the center of the city. The city boasts the largest helicopter fleet in the world, and transports executives, police and company personnel by air in order to avoid crime and traffic.
Carlos Cazalis
A child plays on construction rubble and pretends to hold a weapon outside her school located on the periphery of São Paulo. Although the area has a large number of schools, overcrowding limits attendance, and students go to school in three separate shifts for four hours a day.
Carlos Cazalis
A father and child walk into the Joao Candido occupation, located on a farm in a suburb south of Sao Paulo. The occupation was an attempt to divert the attention of the mayor of Itapecerica da Serra, a small city adjoining São Paulo. This type of occupation is proof of how rapidly the urbanization of São Paulo is expanding beyond city limits and into the 13 cities that surround it.
Carlos Cazalis
A security tower guards Alphaville, an affluent gated community on the periphery of Western São Paulo. The division illustrates the ever-growing disparity between the city's rich and poor.
Carlos Cazalis
Mansions within the Tambore gated communities, which are located within Alphaville—the first gated community in Brazil. Built 25 years ago, Alphaville now holds 14 separate gated communities each independently managed by their own private security.
Carlos Cazalis
Real-estate agents show a $10 million home for sale in the Tambore complex.
Carlos Cazalis
Women at a hairdresser in São Paulo.
Carlos Cazalis
An Oldsmobile convertible cruises inside Alphaville's gated community with its top down, a feat that would be dangerous in the city itself.
Carlos Cazalis
