Internal Affairs defeated Successive Claim Syndrome – 12/16/2023 – Elio Gaspari

Two weeks ago, as part of the Solo Seguro Program, the National Inspectorate of Justice handed over 180 property titles to residents of Complexo do Alemão, in Rio de Janeiro. (In that scenario, in 2011, the cable car spectacle was installed, costing R$ 210 million. It was stopped for seven years and would be reopened at the beginning of this month. Okay, what starts as a presepada, as a presepada, gets into trouble.)

The regularization of the lots where 180 families in Alemão live cost 17 people three months of work: 2 from the Internal Affairs Department, around 12 from Rio City Hall and 3 from the property registry office. The printing of the deeds must have cost around R$2,000. Only.

The two initiatives show the futility of spectacular works that primarily benefit the people upstairs, and the usefulness of actions where what is needed is just interest in the downstairs, plus some work.

Peruvian economist Hernando de Soto showed decades ago that, in the Third World, millions of families live in modest residences, on land without documentation. Without deeds, they suffer from militiamen, do not have access to regular public services and have difficulty obtaining credit. With deeds, they gain a type of financial citizenship.

According to De Soto, in an old account, people living on irregular lots were sitting on top of assets worth US$9.3 trillion, equivalent to the value of all the companies listed on the stock exchanges of the 20 most developed countries. In Brazil, this equity is likely to be higher than the value of companies on the São Paulo Stock Exchange.

The land regularization of urban lots seems to be an insoluble issue because it is almost exclusive to the ground floor. You can’t do the deed because, first, the building must come, and the building can’t come because you don’t know who owns the land. It’s the Successive Claim Syndrome: you can’t do A because B is missing and you can only do B when C is done. Meanwhile, nothing gets done.

The national inspector of justice, minister Luis Felipe Salomão, and his small team showed how it’s done, and not just in Alemão. In just one week, in August and September, 31 thousand properties were regularized in the Legal Amazon. In all cases, the collaboration of city halls was decisive.

In another initiative, the National Council of Justice, helped by notary offices and their employees, issued around 100,000 civil registration documents for people living on the streets. It was another case of Successive Claim Syndrome. These citizens, because they did not have documents, had made access to some social services difficult.

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