This case deals with the struggle for the recognition of the right to housing of around 30 families who are recyclable waste collectors. They have occupied the site of a company that went bankrupt in the Boqueirão neighbourhood of Curitiba since 1999. Failing to fulfil the social function of the plot of land, the owner of which was declared bankrupt in 1997, the property was not being used, had no buildings on it and was not being looked after in any way, shape or form by the bankrupt company.

In 2004 Tecnicom filed a lawsuit for repossession. This was denied in 2006, the year in which Terra de Direitos began to accompany the case from the legal point of view, as well as playing its social role of encouraging community organization and income generation, by providing assistance to develop associativism among the recyclable solid waste workers.

It is an emblematic case as it was the first to receive a court ruling recognizing adverse possession in the state of Paraná. By two votes to one the judges of the State Appeal Court confirmed the legality of the request for collective adverse possession in an unprecedented ruling in relation to the social function of urban property.

In 2016, the community gained another victory through a court injunction against the Paraná Water and Sanitation Company (SANEPAR) with the aim of urbanizing the area. The Company is now obliged to provide the basic service of supplying water on an individual and permanent basis, regardless of the community’s families having title deeds to the property.