O Programa Nacional de Habitação Rural como incentivo à permanência das famílias camponesas em suas comunidades de origem: a Colônia de Pescadores Artesanais da Ilha da Torotama – Rio Grande/RS.

Abstract

The National Rural Housing Program (PNHR), a result from housing programs aimed at rural areas and developed in the country since 2003, arose to supply the huge demand for some dignified housing that could meet the needs of small and medium family farmers. It was born from the work and collaboration between social organizations and rural unions in partnership with federal public managers, and it seeks both better living conditions for countryside families and – as much as possible – the discouragement of rural exodus. With a positive social impact on the achievement of dignified housing and better living conditions, it remains to be seen what influence the program has on people’s desire to stay in rural areas, since some authors claim that, by itself, the achievement of home ownership does not guarantee this permanence. The aim of this work is to evaluate the influence of PHNR as a contributing and/or motivating fator to the beneficiary families’ desire to remain in their home communities, with the real possibility of developing themselves and also future generations. To this end, this research selected the Colony of Fishermen of Torotama Island – Rio Grande/RS as a Case Study due to the lack of post-execution evaluations of PNHR in rural areas and even more in traditionally established communities which are different from those belonging to family farming. Some consuderations were, then, deemed necessary: an analysis of the evolution of the program since its creation; a qualitative comparison of the standard designs adopted throughout the evolutionary process of the program until the current format; a technical assessment of the housing units produced; and an evaluation of the perception of the fishing families benefitted by the program regarding the meeting of their needs as well as their individual and collective aspirations. In this way, it was identified not only the validity, but also the impact of the PNHR as a public housing policy that seeks in its determinations and objectives, in addition to discouraging the rural exodus, promoting the human valorization of rural families and traditional communities , its social inclusion and its yearnings for a dignified life.