Carências Habitacionais no Brasil e na América Latina: o papel do ônus excessivo com aluguel urbano

The last decade in Brazil was marked by substantial investments in the real state sector, including the construction of new housing units for low-income households. Despite such a significant flow of resources, an appraisal of indicators related to housing needs that have guided public policies in the sector exposes a relative persistence of the so-called housing shortage. An analysis of the housing shortage indicator between 2007 and 2014 shows that one of its four essential components, the urban rental affordability stress, was the main responsible for the observed growth tendency. In order to understand the behavior of the components of the housing shortage and, particularly, of the urban rental affordability stress, the paper brings a conceptual discussion regarding the housing shortage indicator, by means of the theoretical framework provided by urban political ecology, as well as of a comparative analysis between the different calculation methodologies for this indicator adopted by Latin American countries. The proposed debate aims to contribute to a critical review of the housing shortage indicator and the improvement of the calculation of housing needs in Brazil.