Homes crowd the Rocinha shantytown in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, photographed on May 22, 2012. Local officials and human rights groups are working to give legal title to tens of thousands of residents of shantytowns like Rocinha, a process that increases their wealth and gives them greater access to credit, as well as peace of mind.
The programs so far are just a start at tackling a widespread problem: A third of the people in Rio state, nearly 5 million people, don't have title to their homes, an uncertainty shared by most of the approximately 1 billion people who living in slums globally.
