Heliópolis stands out in the metropolis of Sao Paulo for its size and complexity. Situated on an area of approximately 1 million square meters or 100 hectares, it is home to approximately 200,000 people and has an extremely high population density of 2,000 inhabitants per hectare, twenty-eight times higher than the average density of the municipality of Sao Paulo.

Its creation, since the 1970s, and its consolidation, directly or indirectly, have a strong relationship with the actions of the state. In fact, the first houses in the area were temporary shelters built by the government itself on an empty plot of land that belonged to the federal government at the time. Since then, and especially since the mid-1980s, all municipal governments have worked in Heliopolis, developing and applying different intervention strategies. The result is a very heterogeneous area, with housing estates of different types and dates of construction in the middle of blocks of self-built houses, with or without technical assistance. In recent years, this landscape has been modified by apartment buildings built by the private sector.

The interventions aimed at improving and consolidating Heliópolis are largely due to the resistance of its first inhabitants, who stayed in the area and fought tirelessly for improvements, from the very beginning of the settlement’s creation, when the first residents’ committee was formed to talk with the government.

Today, UNAS – União de Núcleos, Associações dos Moradores de Heliópolis e Região, the largest residents’ association in Heliópolis, is responsible for more than 50 projects aimed at the integral development of the community and the guarantee of rights, articulated around education and the goal of making Heliópolis an “educating neighborhood”.