Paraisópolis, one of São Paulo’s largest favelas, rises up the hillside in a dense, improvised sprawl. Homes stand shoulder to shoulder, some painted in bright colors, others left in bare brick. Narrow alleys twist so tightly that cars cannot enter. Instead, motorbikes squeeze past laundry lines and children playing in the street.

For decades, Brazil’s national postal service, Correios, never set foot inside. Without formal addresses or numbered homes, most deliveries never arrive.

“We didn’t have official addresses,” said Patrícia Conceição da Silva, who grew up in Paraisópolis. “So, for example, to order a pizza, we would say, ‘The house next to Seu Chico’s little market.’ Only people from here would understand that.”

Beyond pizza, most things simply never arrived. Residents often had to leave the favela to pick up packages. For elderly or vulnerable neighbors, it was more than an inconvenience. That problem became acute during the COVID-19 pandemic, when medicines and online shopping were unable to reach the community.

So residents came up with their own solution: a community-run delivery service. Favela Brasil Xpress launched in 2020 inside Paraisópolis. The company operates from a small warehouse where residents sort boxes, scan labels and head out on scooters and motorbikes to deliver orders.

“Today, we handle about 1,600 deliveries a day. Everything goes door to door,” said operations supervisor Hilton Mendes. He emphasized that the company is entirely local, and that most employees are from inside the community, people who already knew the alleys — and the unwritten rules of security. For outsiders, delivering in a favela could be dangerous. But residents knew how to move safely and where to go. “It turned into steady work for dozens of residents,” Mendes said.

That change is clear to resident Lena Mata, who runs a small fruit shop in Paraisópolis. 

“I buy so many things on the internet,” she said. “Makeup, shampoo, everything. Now I can order from Amazon, from Shein … and things arrive at my door in a day or two.”

The success of Favela Brasil Xpress has ripple effects. Brazil’s postal service, which never had a branch in Paraisópolis, finally opened one recently. The branch still does not deliver door-to-door. Customers have to collect their own packages, but Mendes said it was nevertheless a sign of official recognition for a community that had been long left off the map.

Another big step comes through a collaboration with Google. Working with local leaders, the company maps nearly every home in Paraisópolis and gives each one a digital code — effectively, a virtual address. 

“Now, with these codes, 90% of homes can be found exactly on the map,” Mendes said. Still, he said, security concerns keep many outsiders from entering Paraisópolis. 

But together, these fixes — a community-built delivery company, a long-delayed postal branch, and a new system of digital addresses — are bringing something many take for granted: the right to be found at home.

Brazilian journalist Yan Boechat contributed to this report.