Governor Tarcísio de Freitas transferred his office to the city of São Sebastião| Photo: Disclosure / Government of SP

The governor of São Paulo, Tarcísio de Freitas, signed a decree expropriating an area of ​​10,600 square meters in Vila do Sahy, in São Sebastião. The measure is the first step towards building housing for families left homeless as a result of the heavy rains that hit the North Coast of the state last week. The tragedy killed at least 57 people and left 2,251 homeless. The search for survivors continues this Saturday (25).

“I already have the owner’s authorization to enter and work immediately. It’s a flat area, a safe area where CDHU [Companhia de Desenvolvimento Habitacional e Urbano] will build houses to start taking people out of the risk area and give housing to those who lost it”, said Governor Tarcísio de Freitas.

The expropriated land is located in one of the areas hardest hit by landslides and was taken over by irregular houses, which were destroyed. The city hall of São Sebastião must cede two more areas, of 19 thousand square meters, for the construction of more popular houses for the families affected by the landslides.

“Our idea is to build an experience that reconciles the construction of social housing in a safe area with the demobilization of these existing houses and environmental recovery. If it works, we will be able to scale this experience to other regions”, stated Tarcísio.