Negócio de impacto social, melhorias habitacionais e mercado financeiro: a moradia dos pobres como oportunidade de renda

Abstract

This research objectives to analyze critically the dynamics, consequences and contradictions of a social impact business in the housing improvement sector in the periphery: the case of Vivenda. This is a company that found an income opportunity in the building inadequacy (one of the housing deficit categories) and was responsible for issuing the first social impact debenture in Brazil. Its speech is based on social entrepreneurship as a supposed solution to social problems. The company has acted as a financing platform for home renovations in various regions of the country, offering interest-bearing credit to low-income families and articulating them with architectural firms and other construction agents. As the housing deficit is predominantly female, the clientele of the renovations managed by Vivenda is also mainly women. I investigate both the company's financial strategies and its concrete performance in the territories. Beacons for this are theories about financialization, everyday life and housing self-production, as well as feminist theories. To collect data about the company, I resorted to bibliographic sources, lives, websites, newspaper articles and social networks, and interviewed architects from offices associated with the company's platform. In addition, I conducted a series of interviews with low-income women who purchased services offered by the company, seeking to understand their experiences regarding the gains or losses of autonomy, the effectiveness of reforms, the consequences of the debt incurred and the daily tactics of financial management. The analysis of the data collected does not point to the solution of social problems, but rather to the structuring of a low-complexity reform market detached from the State and public policies and associated with the financial market. It is about the narrowing of financialization with peripheral territories, facing them as a new front for capital appreciation. At the end of the research, I also investigate some initiatives that I consider emancipatory gaps in the face of this scenario. They are valuable for showing that commitment to some form of social emancipation is still possible.