Simply moving through Brazilian cities, wasting hours in traffic jams or waiting for overcrowded buses or subways—or ones that don't even exist!—is enough to see that they are far from functioning at a reasonable standard. And even those who, supposedly protected by walls, rarely come into contact with the precarious housing conditions of millions of families are shocked by the growing number of people living on the streets or by stark reminders of this precarity when a tragedy, such as the fire in the Wilton Paes de Almeida Building, hits the headlines. One would expect, therefore, that urban issues—housing and transportation in particular—would be prominent in the government platforms of the presidential candidates.
Yet the reality is quite different: urban areas and their challenges are addressed by only seven of the 13 candidates. The issue is not even mentioned in the platforms of Jair Bolsonaro (PSL), João Amoêdo (Novo), Henrique Meirelles (MDB), and Cabo Daciolo (Patriota). Meanwhile, the guidelines presented by José Maria Eymael (DC) include only a generic pledge to "promote efforts to ensure decent housing for all families through specific public policies."
