Thomson Reuters Foundation:
62 year old Altair Guimarães lives in an apartment block in Rio.
Thomson Reuters Foundation:
Despite living and working in Rio all his life, Guimarães has struggled to hold on to a home.
Thomson Reuters Foundation:
He is one of 1.5m people who live in informal settlements in Rio, called favelas.
Thomson Reuters Foundation:
Rio’s urban poor live precariously, under a constant threat of removals and evictions.
Thomson Reuters Foundation:
Guimarães may be unusual: he’s been evicted three times in his life in Rio.
Thomson Reuters Foundation:
‘I had an idyllic childhood" he says, in a community on the edge Freitas Lagoon, southern Rio.
Thomson Reuters Foundation:
"I was so close to the water, I would fish and play on the beach."
Thomson Reuters Foundation:
At the age of 14, life changed as his community were evicted. "Tears were pouring from my eyes."
Thomson Reuters Foundation:
20 years later, Guimarães became integral to the fight for Vila Autódromo community.
Thomson Reuters Foundation:
Vila Autódromo had been home to 800 families. In 2017, a few small houses remain.
Thomson Reuters Foundation:
Rio’s growing Real Estate speculation had threatened this community for decades.
Thomson Reuters Foundation:
The Rio Olympics provided the final impetus for the community to be removed.
Thomson Reuters Foundation:
‘Vila Autodromo was my real home’, Guimaraes’ daughter Naomy said. ‘Everyone looked after me there’.
Thomson Reuters Foundation:
‘Now I know no one, I rarely go out,’ she said.
Thomson Reuters Foundation:
One original home stands as a remnant of the past in Vila Autódromo.
Thomson Reuters Foundation:
"If it weren’t for Altair, I wouldn’t have a home," one local resident said, in tears.
Thomson Reuters Foundation:
"I wish our government could consider the human being," Altair says.