Erica Lacerda de Souza, son Henrique and husband Bruce Lee de Souza, calm down of their new house in Guaianazes, São Paulo. The household misplaced their house when the pandemic took away their livelihoods. They moved in about two months in the past after being homeless, then getting a tiny transitional residence/
Gabriela Porthilo for NPR
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Gabriela Porthilo for NPR
In August 2023, we shared the story of a household of three from São Paulo who had misplaced all the pieces as a result of pandemic. With no work, house, automotive or meals, and their younger son positioned together with his grandmother, they struggled to outlive. They spent nights on the ground at a transit hub and infrequently discovered beds in a shelter.
A program referred to as Vila Reencontro allowed them to maneuver right into a transitional tiny house and get entry to meals and social providers. Now, reunited, employed and settled right into a rental in a quiet neighborhood close to household, they’re regularly getting again on their ft.
We adopted as much as see how they’re doing now.
With fists held tight, Henrique rubs his eyes as he closes his bed room door and makes his technique to the kitchen to repair himself breakfast. The ten-year-old mumbles a “good morning” to his mother and pa as he passes by way of the lounge and provides his gray and white cat, affectionately named Psycho, a scratch on the top and underneath the chin.
Within the kitchen, he fills a glass with milk and scoops a heaping spoonful of chocolate powder into it earlier than giving it a stir and placing it within the microwave.
Henrique, son of Érica Lacerda de Souza and Bruce Lee de Souza, has breakfast on the sofa in his new house in Guaianazes, São Paulo. After they misplaced their rental unit throughout the early days of the pandemic, Henrique went to dwell together with his grandmother.
Gabriela Portilho for NPR
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Gabriela Portilho for NPR
“He at all times makes his personal breakfast,” says his mother, Erica Lacerda de Souza, as she watches him from the kitchen doorway, her husband, Bruce Lee Sousa, nodding in settlement from the sofa within the adjoining lounge. “It’s his job to handle Psycho too. He places out his meals and water and makes certain the litter field is clear. I need him to be impartial and accountable.”
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Only a yr in the past the trio was one among 37 households every of whom have been residing in a tiny home within the downtown São Paulo neighborhood of Anhangabaú. It was a part of a municipal program referred to as Vila Reencontro, impressed by New York’s Housing First program from the Nineteen Nineties and one of many methods the Brazilian metropolis of 12 million was making an attempt to assist its rising variety of unhoused individuals, significantly throughout the pandemic, get again on their ft. This system offers households with tiny properties for as much as 36 months together with entry to meals and social providers.
All is misplaced
After they needed to shut their bodega due to pandemic rules and their different work dwindled — Lacerda de Souza’s as a cleaner and Lee Sousa’s at a automotive wash — they misplaced the home they rented and virtually all the pieces in it. Whereas Henrique, who was then 6, was despatched to dwell together with his maternal grandmother, the couple spent two weeks sleeping on the ground at São Paulo’s downtown Barra Funda Terminal — a central hub for metropolis transit — and months making their approach by way of town’s shelter and different momentary housing methods earlier than studying about Vila Reencontro and being supplied a tiny house.
Érica Lacerda de Souza helps her son, Henrique, repair his hair. She says that this is without doubt one of the boy’s vanities — he desires to ensure his curls look good earlier than heading off to high school.
Gabriela Portilho for NPR
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Gabriela Portilho for NPR
There, Henrique was in a position to dwell with them once more, they usually have been offered a slew of different alternatives, together with assist discovering everlasting housing and jobs.
Simply six months after shifting to the 194-square-foot house — barely smaller than a one-car storage — Lee Sousa was supplied a spot in a piece program and began his job with town’s sanitation division — which he nonetheless has right this moment — final September. The trio additionally benefited from a metropolis housing program that allowed them to flip by way of a listing of potential properties obtainable to lease so they may select what could be one of the best match for his or her household.
A brand new starting
After seeing a number of choices, they determined to go together with their spacious house within the east-end neighborhood of Guaianases, which they’ve now been in for about two months. It’s removed from downtown, however Lacerda de Souza says it’s what she prefers.
Érica Lacerda de Souza hangs on the wall of her home the one image she has of her household — taken throughout a stroll in Villa Lobos Park in an upscale space of town. All the opposite footage she had of her household have been misplaced after they misplaced their house.
Gabriela Portilho for NPR
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Gabriela Portilho for NPR
“I like residing in a quiet, household neighborhood,” she says. “Right here I can stroll to the grocery store, there’s a bakery across the nook and Henrique doesn’t have far to go to high school. We’re so much nearer to my mother’s home now too, so it’s straightforward for her to return go to or for Henrique to go spend time together with her.”
The housing program pays their lease for the following two years and has already helped them furnish their new house, offering them with a desk, a mattress, armoires and a fridge. Different objects — like their sofa and range — they bought themselves, as they slowly rebuild what they misplaced. After two years, the household ought to be capable to pay their very own lease.
The household receives visits each different week from a program social employee, who has additionally helped them get entry to medical care – Lacerda de Souza has again ache from two herniated discs — and modify to their new circumstances.
“There are such a lot of small stuff you take with no consideration,” Lee Sousa says. “Like understanding how one can plan your month-to-month grocery run. It’s been years since we have been in a position to try this ourselves. If you’re in shelters and even within the tiny house, meals are simply served to you. Now we’ve got to relearn how one can funds for what we’d like.”
Erica Lacerda de Souza, her son, Henrique, and her husband, Bruce Lee de Souza, calm down of their new house in Guaianazes, São Paulo.
Gabriela Portilho for NPR
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Gabriela Portilho for NPR
The three like spending time collectively in the lounge, the place they usually lay the mattress from the couple’s bed room on the ground to allow them to watch films and TV reveals collectively. Lee Sousa has a penchant for Indian movies, whereas Lacerda de Souza prefers reveals like Supernatural and Henrique likes watching Cobra Kai.
Their new house is on the prime of a prolonged flight of stairs, and the household has already befriended their neighbors who dwell within the different three flats off the lengthy stretch of hall. When Lee Sousa is at work and Henrique is in school, Lacerda de Souza likes to talk over espresso with the 2 younger girls who dwell subsequent door. When Lee Sousa arrives, their youthful male neighbors are sometimes ready for him to speak one thing over or ask for recommendation.
And Henrique has been doing exceptionally effectively in school, making new pals rapidly and by no means desirous to miss a day. Each morning he takes his time doing his hair, ensuring the curls are good, earlier than his mother walks him to the nook, the place she watches him head up the road as a result of he doesn’t need his pals to see that she’s with him.
“I suppose he’s already getting too outdated for that,” she says with fun.
A non secular revival
Their home, says Lacerda de Souza, is never empty now, and has grow to be a hub not just for household — weekend pasta nights are a favourite occasion — but additionally for his or her non secular group.
The household’s religion lies within the Afro-Brazilian faith referred to as Quimbanda, probably the most stigmatized religions within the nation. As a consequence of cultural misunderstanding and destructive stereotypes, they struggled to apply it whereas residing in shelters and the tiny house for concern that others wouldn’t perceive.
Érica Lacerda de Souza provides brandy to one of many religious entities in her house. Érica is a “mãe de santo.” a non secular priestess of Umbanda, an Afro-Brazilian faith. At present, in her house, she and her husband apply Umbanda rituals and welcome different believers.
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However a small space off the lounge of their new house has allowed them to return to training their religion, the place statues of saints and different sacred objects are on show to allow them to pray and meditate — at all times with the curtains drawn. Others from the group are sometimes there to do the identical, and a few keep over on the household’s new house after they have nowhere else to go.
“Having your personal house is all the pieces,” says Lacerda de Souza. “It’s liberating. And I’m at all times joyful to assist others. The place would we be if no one had helped us?”
Jill Langlois is an impartial journalist based mostly in São Paulo, Brazil. She has been freelancing from the biggest metropolis within the western hemisphere since 2010, writing and reporting for publications like Nationwide Geographic, The New York Instances, The Guardian and Time. Her work focuses on human rights, the surroundings and the influence of socioeconomic points on individuals’s lives.
