It is a completely happy ending : Goats and Soda : NPR

Erica Lacerda de Souza, son Henrique and husband Bruce Lee de Souza, loosen up of their new dwelling in Guaianazes, São Paulo. The household misplaced their dwelling when the pandemic took away their livelihoods. They moved in about two months in the past after being homeless, then getting a tiny transitional residence/

Gabriela Porthilo for NPR

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Gabriela Porthilo for NPR

In August 2023, we shared the story of a household of three from São Paulo who had misplaced every thing because of the pandemic. With no work, dwelling, automotive or meals, and their younger son positioned along with his grandmother, they struggled to outlive. They spent nights on the ground at a transit hub and infrequently discovered beds in a shelter.

A program referred to as Vila Reencontro allowed them to maneuver right into a transitional tiny dwelling and get entry to meals and social companies. Now, reunited, employed and settled right into a rental in a quiet neighborhood close to household, they’re regularly getting again on their ft.

We adopted as much as see how they’re doing now.

With fists held tight, Henrique rubs his eyes as he closes his bed room door and makes his solution to the kitchen to repair himself breakfast. The ten-year-old mumbles a “good morning” to his mother and pop as he passes by means of the lounge and offers his gray and white cat, affectionately named Psycho, a scratch on the top and below the chin.

Within the kitchen, he fills a glass with milk and scoops a heaping spoonful of chocolate powder into it earlier than giving it a stir and placing it within the microwave.

Henrique, son of Érica Lacerda de Souza and Bruce Lee de Souza, has breakfast on the sofa in his new dwelling in Guaianazes, São Paulo. Once they misplaced their rental unit in the course of the early days of the pandemic, Henrique went to reside along with his grandmother.

Gabriela Portilho for NPR

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Gabriela Portilho for NPR

“He at all times makes his personal breakfast,” says his mother, Erica Lacerda de Souza, as she watches him from the kitchen doorway, her husband, Bruce Lee Sousa, nodding in settlement from the sofa within the adjoining front room. “It’s his job to handle Psycho too. He places out his meals and water and makes positive the litter field is clear. I need him to be unbiased and accountable.”

Only a 12 months in the past the trio was one among 37 households every of whom had been residing in a tiny home within the downtown São Paulo neighborhood of Anhangabaú. It was a part of a municipal program referred to as Vila Reencontro, impressed by New York’s Housing First program from the Nineties and one of many methods the Brazilian metropolis of 12 million was attempting to assist its rising variety of unhoused individuals, significantly in the course of the pandemic, get again on their ft. This system supplies households with tiny properties for as much as 36 months together with entry to meals and social companies.

All is misplaced

Once they needed to shut their bodega due to pandemic rules and their different work dwindled — Lacerda de Souza’s as a cleaner and Lee Sousa’s at a automotive wash — they misplaced the home they rented and virtually every thing in it. Whereas Henrique, who was then 6, was despatched to reside along with his maternal grandmother, the couple spent two weeks sleeping on the ground at São Paulo’s downtown Barra Funda Terminal — a central hub for metropolis transit — and months making their manner by means of town’s shelter and different momentary housing methods earlier than studying about Vila Reencontro and being supplied a tiny dwelling.

Érica Lacerda de Souza helps her son, Henrique, repair his hair. She says that this is without doubt one of the boy’s vanities — he desires to ensure his curls look good earlier than heading off to high school.

Gabriela Portilho for NPR

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Gabriela Portilho for NPR

There, Henrique was capable of reside with them once more, they usually had been offered a slew of different alternatives, together with assist discovering everlasting housing and jobs.

Simply six months after shifting to the 194-square-foot dwelling — barely smaller than a one-car storage — Lee Sousa was supplied a spot in a piece program and began his job with town’s sanitation division — which he nonetheless has at the moment — final September. The trio additionally benefited from a metropolis housing program that allowed them to flip by means of a listing of potential properties out there to hire so they may select what can be one of the best match for his or her household.

A brand new starting

After seeing a number of choices, they determined to go along with their spacious dwelling within the east-end neighborhood of Guaianases, which they’ve now been in for about two months. It’s removed from downtown, however Lacerda de Souza says it’s what she prefers.

Érica Lacerda de Souza hangs on the wall of her home the one image she has of her household — taken throughout a stroll in Villa Lobos Park in an upscale space of town. All the opposite photos she had of her household had been misplaced after they misplaced their dwelling.

Gabriela Portilho for NPR

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Gabriela Portilho for NPR

“I like residing in a quiet, household neighborhood,” she says. “Right here I can stroll to the grocery store, there’s a bakery across the nook and Henrique doesn’t have far to go to high school. We’re lots nearer to my mother’s home now too, so it’s simple for her to return go to or for Henrique to go spend time together with her.”

The housing program can pay their hire for the subsequent two years and has already helped them furnish their new dwelling, offering them with a desk, a mattress, armoires and a fridge. Different gadgets — like their sofa and range — they bought themselves, as they slowly rebuild what they misplaced. After two years, the household ought to have the ability to pay their very own hire.

The household receives visits each different week from a program social employee, who has additionally helped them get entry to medical care – Lacerda de Souza has again ache from two herniated discs — and regulate to their new circumstances.

“There are such a lot of small belongings you take without any consideration,” Lee Sousa says. “Like understanding tips on how to plan your month-to-month grocery run. It’s been years since we had been in a position to try this ourselves. Whenever you’re in shelters and even within the tiny dwelling, meals are simply served to you. Now we now have to relearn tips on how to finances for what we want.”

Erica Lacerda de Souza, her son, Henrique, and her husband, Bruce Lee de Souza, loosen up of their new dwelling in Guaianazes, São Paulo.

Gabriela Portilho for NPR

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Gabriela Portilho for NPR

The three like spending time collectively in the lounge, the place they typically lay the mattress from the couple’s bed room on the ground to allow them to watch films and TV reveals collectively. Lee Sousa has a penchant for Indian movies, whereas Lacerda de Souza prefers reveals like Supernatural and Henrique likes watching Cobra Kai.

Their new house is on the prime of a prolonged flight of stairs, and the household has already befriended their neighbors who reside within the different three residences off the lengthy stretch of hall. When Lee Sousa is at work and Henrique is in school, Lacerda de Souza likes to speak over espresso with the 2 younger girls who reside subsequent door. When Lee Sousa arrives, their youthful male neighbors are sometimes ready for him to speak one thing over or ask for recommendation.

And Henrique has been doing exceptionally properly in school, making new mates shortly and by no means desirous to miss a day. Each morning he takes his time doing his hair, ensuring the curls are good, earlier than his mother walks him to the nook, the place she watches him head up the road as a result of he doesn’t need his mates to see that she’s with him.

“I assume he’s already getting too outdated for that,” she says with amusing.

A non secular revival

Their home, says Lacerda de Souza, isn’t empty now, and has grow to be a hub not just for household — weekend pasta nights are a favourite occasion — but in addition for his or her spiritual group.

The household’s religion lies within the Afro-Brazilian faith referred to as Quimbanda, some of the stigmatized religions within the nation. On account of cultural misunderstanding and adverse stereotypes, they struggled to apply it whereas residing in shelters and the tiny dwelling for concern that others wouldn’t perceive.

Érica Lacerda de Souza gives brandy to one of many non secular entities in her dwelling. Érica is a “mãe de santo.” a non secular priestess of Umbanda, an Afro-Brazilian faith. At this time, in her dwelling, she and her husband apply Umbanda rituals and welcome different believers.

Gabriela Portilho for NPR

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Gabriela Portilho for NPR

However a small space off the lounge of their new dwelling has allowed them to return to working towards their religion, the place statues of saints and different sacred objects are on show to allow them to pray and meditate — at all times with the curtains drawn. Others from the group are sometimes there to do the identical, and a few keep over on the household’s new dwelling after they have nowhere else to go.

“Having your personal house is every thing,” says Lacerda de Souza. “It’s liberating. And I’m at all times completely happy to assist others. The place would we be if no one had helped us?”

Jill Langlois is an unbiased journalist based mostly in São Paulo, Brazil. She has been freelancing from the most important metropolis within the western hemisphere since 2010, writing and reporting for publications like Nationwide Geographic, The New York Instances, The Guardian and Time. Her work focuses on human rights, the atmosphere and the affect of socioeconomic points on individuals’s lives.