A relação entre sujeitos em situação de rua e o poder local : protagonismo ou passividade?

Abstract

This study aims to investigate and deepen the debate about the homelessness process and discusses the protagonism of individuals who experience these processes. The user participation is expected in social policies after the 1988 Federal Constitution, in order to contribute to the strengthening of emancipatory social processes. This is a challenge to be consolidated to the extent that the history of Brazil was marked by long periods of slavery, colonialism and dictatorship that hindered the creation of a public space where the protagonism of the subjects could be exercised. This study was conducted in the city of Alvorada, in the state of Rio Grande do Sul, whose IBGE Census data (2010 ) shows that 3.1% of the population is living in extreme poverty, with household income below R$ 70.00. Nevertheless, according to the Ministry of Social Development and Fight against Hunger - MDS, the resources invested in Social Welfare Policies in the municipality reached only 1 % (one percent) of the total budget. The coping processes of homelessness by local authorities compose the goals of the Unified Social Assistance System - SUAS and aim to offer a coordinated set of initiatives to ensure social protection within each territory to families and individuals in situations of vulnerability and social risk. Given this reality, this study sought to uncover the historical-structural contradictions that underlie the homelessness process, mediating aspects of universality with local aspects. In this sense, the intention is to make the results available to the group of agents so that subsidies are provided for the improvement initiatives that follow an emancipatory perspective. The investigative cycle was marked by a critical and dialectical framework and characterized as being of the mixed type, once it articulated the use of quantitative and qualitative data in a complementary way, even if, at certain moments, one or the other was emphasized. In this research we focused on the use of triangulation of techniques, instruments and sources in order to better contemplate descriptions and explanations on the subject studied. This way, the study sought to give visibility to the tension between the viability of possible disruptions that favor the protagonism of the subjects versus material constraints that interdict it, in the perspective of overcoming the limits imposed, and reaffirmation of the need to assure and expand social rights, contributing data on the multiple determinations that constitute the homelessness process and possibilities of the protagonism experienced by subjects in the streets.