The issue of urban vacancy is both a complex and a prevalent phenomenon in multiple contexts globally, providing an opening to address systemic issues of precarity. In this article, I explore the issue of urban vacancy in São Paulo, where the problem of vacant property has been highlighted for years alongside housing challenges and socio-spatial segregation. While São Paulo’s real estate market is often unreachable for the urban poor, a Brazilian constitutional directive on the social function of property – the obligation to use property to further the common good – enables municipalities to take punitive action against owners of vacant property through a triad of policy tools. Therefore, despite the often-exclusionary nature of vacancy, transformational possibilities may exist. Exploring the application of these tools, I view urban vacancy through a perspective on common property, untangling emergent contestations and opportunities for transformation.

中文翻译：

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城市中的公共财产：遏制圣保罗的城市空置率


城市空置问题在全球多种背景下既复杂又普遍，为解决系统性不稳定问题提供了一个机会。在本文中，我探讨了圣保罗的城市空置问题，多年来，空置房产问题与住房挑战和社会空间隔离一起一直受到强调。虽然圣保罗的房地产市场对城市贫民来说往往是遥不可及的，但巴西宪法关于财产的社会功能——利用财产促进公共利益的义务——的指令使市政当局能够通过三重政策工具对空置房产的所有者采取惩罚性行动。因此，尽管职位空缺通常具有排他性，但可能存在转型的可能性。通过探索这些工具的应用，我通过对公共财产的视角来看待城市空置，解开新出现的争论和转型的机会。