To speak of Vila Nova Jaguaré is to speak of an important part of the west zone of the city of São Paulo, a neighborhood initially thought to house, as of the 1930s, the Centro Industrial Jaguaré. Although close to the central region, it was being established as part of the outskirts of São Paulo.
It is not uncommon, when cities grow, that planning is not like what it was thought it would be, people occupy the spaces and give life to them, and not always the public power, sometimes together with the private initiative, is able to realize the need to keep up with new demands.
Specifically the neighborhood of Vila Nova Jaguaré, near Lapa, Pinheiros, and the Pinheiros River, margined by a railway line, planned to be an important industrialized region of São Paulo, began to house the workers of these industries and other residents, women, men, and children of different nationalities and regions of Brazil, especially the Northeast, with regular and irregular occupations, in areas with large slopes and water obtained in a spout, where CEU Jaguaré is located today.
The diversity of people who settled there also reflected on the buildings of the region, which only in the 1960s went through some improvements in urban infrastructure and services, but not enough to meet the new residents demands who continued to arrive.
The distancing of the public power to meet the needs of residents and passers-by favored the formation of the Favela do Jaguaré, with the precariousness of housing, removal of vegetation for land use on the slopes and lack of basic sanitation, to name only a few problems that impacted the territory and people.
The legal constitution in 1977 of the Union of Residents revealed an important and active association, which through the organization of mutual self-help construction groups managed to implement improvements in the neighborhood, and was able to force the government to carry out small improvements.
Over the following years, there was little investment, great deterioration caused by the lack of maintenance in the neighborhood, processes of removal of families, and increasing violence, showing the inefficiency of the State.
During the government of the then mayor of the city Luiza Erundina (1989–1992), the Plano de Ação para as Favelas em Situação de Risco ou Emergência was prepared, which included the Nova Jaguaré, and once again the mutual self-help groups executed construction works that improved part of one of the slopes of the neighborhood.
In the following governments, the Programa de Verticalização de Favelas – Prover was implemented in the neighborhood, but its ineffectiveness became clear.
Mayor Marta Suplicy (2001–2004), through the Plano Diretor Estratégico do Município and the Planos Regionais that were articulated with the hitherto newly created Estatuto das Cidades (2001), promoted the implementation of Special Areas of Social Interest (Zonas Especiais de Interesse Social – ZEIS), with which the participation of the population in housing policies was resumed through the creation of the Municipal Housing Council.
Based on these articulations and the involvement of the neighborhood leaders, the Bairro Legal Program, which had the participation of residents, promoted the urbanization project of Vila Nova Jaguaré, developed between 2002 and 2003 by the Escritório Projeto Paulista, which sought to implement basic sanitation, stabilize slopes, open new roads, and promote the regularization of others already constituted, besides the implementation of green and free areas.
The implementation began in 2006, and was concluded in 2013 with the land regulation.
The result was the removal of approximately 1,700 families, of which 1,041 remained in the neighborhood in a new housing, the others received social rent or compensation. The neighborhood was renamed as Núcleo Urbanizado Vila Nova Jaguaré.
Over the years, industries have ceased to be the main focus of attraction for new and old residents, and until 2022 this was the (only) urbanization plan that effectively met the local population needs, even if there are still issues to be resolved.
