These Photos Show a Glimpse of Life in Sao Paulo’s ‘Crackland’

Fábio, who has been coming to 'crackland' for many years, proudly displays his tattoos in June. During the day, he washes car windshields at traffic lights. Photo: Luca Meola for VICE World News

SAO PAULO, Brazil — Cracolandia, or “crackland” is the name of a single block of buildings in the center of Sao Paulo, Brazil.

The area is host to some 1,600 people a day, who either live on the streets or come in to buy and consume crack cocaine, day and night. 

I’ve been documenting Cracolandia for three years, with the aim of constructing an alternative narrative around this stigmatized community. I got to know many drugs users, and found that the factors that result in their ending up on the streets go beyond their crack consumption: inequality, unemployment, and a lack of supportive public policies, for example. Most of the people who frequent this area are Black or brown,  and many have spent time in prison. Cracolandia is a world apart from the rest of São Paulo. 

For decades, the neighborhood has been a challenge for the city government. From 2014 to 2017, the project “De Braços Abertos” (Open Arms) offered addicted drug users alternatives including housing, food and employment. But after 2017, a change in the city’s administration from a left-leaning to more right-wing government saw the strategy shift to coercing drug users in rehab clinics,  as well as massive police operations that rounded up addicted drug users. This war on drugs and addiction has been used as a justification for gentrification: demolishing old houses and building new ones, which hands profits to construction companies and often displaces locals as middle and upper class residents move in. 

When the global pandemic hit, the flow of people coming to buy drugs continued, and meant there was no social distancing, masks or use of hand sanitizer. But there were also very few cases of COVID here in a country that overall has been devastated by the virus and is one of the worst-affected in the world. 

Many people wonder why such an exposed population has not yet been wiped out, but the inhabitants of the area joke that it is the smoke of the crack that keeps the virus away. 

A moment of tension in October between police officers and addicted drug users. Such confrontations are frequent. In September, the city’s human rights commission declared that the measures adopted by public security have led to a surge in violence, with the misuse of non-lethal weapons, teargas and torture. Photo: Luca Meola for VICE World News

Aika is a transsexual from the eastern state of Bahia and moved to Sao Paulo some years ago in search of a better life. But she started smoking crack and has lived on the streets of 'crackland' ever since. This photo was taken in September 2020. Photo: Luca Meola for VICE World News.

Every day, residents or visitors of 'crackland' stand in line and thank God before receiving free meals. Most of the organizations that work in the area are linked to evangelical churches. Photo: Luca Meola for VICE World News.

A user oc crack cocaince consumes the drug using a pipe on the streets of 'crackland' in June 2016. Photo: Luca Meola for VICE World News.

Camila has lived in ‘crackland’ for about 10 years. She told the photographer in July, when this photo was taken, that her biggest dream is to leave crack and become a model. Photo: Luca Meola for VICE World News.

A crack buyer holds out a piece of the drug, whose price rose during the pandemic. An average of 1,680 people consumer crack every day in ‘crackland’, according to a survey by UNIFESP (Federal University of São Paulo’s alcohol and drugs research unit). Photo: Luca Meola for VICE World News.