Sao Paulo Public/Private Affordable Housing Toolkit

Jonathan Rose Companies consulted with the City of Sao Paulo through its urban development and housing agencies, and a private development company – Brookfield Incorporacoes.  The City’s objective is build one million dwelling units between 2009 and 2024 in the city center and near transportation.  To achieve that goal, the City intends to enter into a series of public/private partnerships with companies like Brookfield Incorporações. However, the city had little experience utilizing this strategy to build affordable housing.  Jonathan Rose Companies’ task was to establish a public-private partnership framework for the inclusion of affordable housing in mixed-income residential developments.

While Sao Paulo has a core downtown, there is little residential development there.  Sprawling development defines Sao Paulo’s growth over the past 50 years, which has exacerbated problems associated with good access to jobs, particularly for low- and moderate-income workers.  Daily circulation from suburbs to downtown has overloaded and congested transportation systems. Of equal concern, there has been intense and increasing informal occupation of environmentally fragile areas.  Sao Paulo has a population of over 11 million people, of which three million are living in precarious settlements.

With Brookfield Incorporacoes and the City, we developed a toolkit for entering into and managing the public/private development process including land disposition, financial analysis and transactions, program design, contractual roles and responsibilities, and asset management. Jonathan Rose Companies also facilitated conversations between the various parties involved in a pilot development intended to serve as a model for future public/private partnerships.