O direito à habitação e a dignidade da pessoa idosa no Programa Minha Casa Minha Vida: o caso do Residencial Vila dos Pescadores, em Maceió/AL

Abstract

The elderly population grows sharply and as a result of this condition, questions arise about living that must be addressed, in order to promote functional capacity and strengthen the dignity of this population. On the topic, the World Health Organization (WHO) launched in 2007 the Global Guide Friendly City for the Elderly, which, considering eight axes, provides urban planning geared to the specific demands of the elderly. The Vancouver Protocol was used in the Guide, which helps research the topic with the elderly, when discussing functional capacity in the housing unit, as well as access to the city. Within this panorama, the present research questions how the current dynamics of Brazilian housing policy and in particular, the Minha Casa Minha Vida Program (PMCMV) impacts the lives of low-income elderly people, in their autonomy and functional capacity, considering the concept of decent housing, social housing and the conditions of urban insertion offered by the new housing. To this end, it proposes to analyze the case of Residencial Vila dos Pescadores, located in the district of Trapiche da Barra in Maceió/AL, a PMCMV project aimed at families with income from zero to three minimum wages. The research is exploratory, carried out under a qualitative approach, from field visits and semi-structured interviews, using the Vancouver Protocol, to verify the levels of independence and autonomy of participants in the space of their homes, in the surroundings and in access to City. Also observed, parameters and elements considered essential for the real realization of the right to housing, as well as its pattern of urban insertion, contained in General Comment No. 4 of the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights in 1991, and used in the methodology proposed by Rolnik (2014). Therefore, this research studies the housing needs of the low-income elderly and their urban insertion, in order to contribute to the debate on inclusive urban planning. The results obtained combined with the theoretical discussion developed, provide clues for the interpretation of what decent housing means for residents and how much living with dignity influences the quality of life of the elderly and their ability to enjoy the urban space. In the end, it is intended that the debate raised from the case presented, contribute to the definition of the HIS quality criteria provided to the low-income elderly population, indicating ways for housing and urban policy to take into account, and in a consistent, population aging.