National
The Brazilian Olympic Committee building in Barra de Tijuca, a neighborhood in Brazil outside of the central city that is seeing rapid development.
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Inalva Mendes Brito takes a moment in her backyard next to a heavily polluted lagoon in Vila Autodromo, Rio de Janeiro. Brito, a 65-year-old schoolteacher, and her husband, Elias Serafim, live just a few minutes from the planned site for the Olympic athlete village. They are among the thousands of residents of Vila Autodromo and other neighborhoods like it who are being asked to sacrifice their homes to accommodate the 2016 summer games.
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Inalva comes to this lagoon every day to dispose of litter that gets trapped in the plants that are in her yard. Rock in Rio, a concert arena that was built directly across the lagoon, has contributed to pollution of her land. The city has attempted to move out residents of Vila Autodromo at other times in the past 20 years, but the residents have organized to avoid eviction.
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Olympics construction in an area near Vila Autodromo includes both low- and high-end condominium development. The neighborhood is considered a favela, or shantytown, but it includes many homes that would not be out of place in the city's middle-class communities.
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As condominiums rise in Vila Autodromo in preparation for the Olympics, the city has offered residents a choice between compensation for their land — which residents say would not be enough to buy a home nearby — or relocation to other housing projects.
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Inalva Mendes Brito picks fruit that came from her trees outside. She says the city keeps changing its rationale for displacing her and other residents of her neighborhood.
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Brito talks on the phone in her home. “The land doesn’t belong to just a few people,” she said in an interview. “Land belongs to everyone."
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Like his wife, Brito's husband, Elias Serafim, is worried about being uprooted from his home. Shortly after learning of the threat of eviction, the couple unraveled a sign reading, “No to Injustice, Yes to Vila Autodromo.”
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Inalva Mendes Brito's dog relaxes on the back porch of her home in Vila Autodromo.
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Painter Izaias Rosa lives in the neighborhood next to the proposed relocation area for Vila Autodromo residents. He says that at night he and his neighbors leave their doors open, but wouldn't be able to do that if favela residents move in.
Penn State University/MCT
The entrance to the planned relocation area for residents ]of Vila Aut—dromo, which has been deemed a high-risk area for mudslides.
Thousands of residents of Vila Aut—dromo and other neighborhoods like it throughout the sprawling city of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, are being asked to sacrifice their homes to accommodate Olympic facilities and related infrastructure for the 2016 summer games. (Chloe Elmer/Penn State University/MCT)
Chloe Elmer/Penn State University/MCT
From right, sisters Joyce, 6, and Raissa, 7, giggle and embrace during a game of hopscotch while cousin Maria Eduarda, 6, and sister Thamires, 10 watch in the background. The girls live in Vila Autodromo.
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Wanessa Christine Quintiano, 17, plays with her baby cousin Ana Clara, 20 months, outside of their home in Vila Autodromo. Quintiano said all of her family and friends live in the favela. If she is forced to move, she will be taken away from everything she knows.
Penn State University/MCT
Antonio Carlos, who owns a construction business in Vila Autodromo, says that if the government makes him move farther away, no one will hire him.
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Therezinha Barbosa, 75, says she will particularly struggle if she is evicted from Vila Autodromo because of her age.
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