The research seeks to legitimize the act of occupying vacant properties in the central area of the city as a response and resistance to policies and programs that have not yet overcome the housing deficit. Thus, it is based primarily on understanding how the urbanization process of the city of Rio de Janeiro (through a time frame that begins in 1920 and continues to the present day) has somehow transformed the city, intervening in its geographical space and shaping the production of urban space through an unequal logic that has designed the city we live in today. Based on this scenario, a critical analysis is constructed of the complicity of the State s role over the years, followed by current programs that reinforce removal policies in the city. Thus, the theoretical framework is inspired by Henri Lefebvre s pioneering concepts on the right to the city, which are complemented by David Harvey s concepts of the right to the city and housing, where such rights are exercised in their entirety when they go hand in hand. In view of this, the objective is to reflect on the layers (location of the housing produced, state incentives for the civil construction market, segregation, and housing deficit) that permeate the phenomenon of occupying vacant properties in the city center, which has been growing in recent years. Thus, the field of study for the research is present through the Occupation of the Casarão do Hotel Moderno, established in a property that today belongs to the Union. The Occupation, located in the Glória neighborhood, faces obstacles in its legitimization. The aim, then, is to use ethnographic methods to understand the specificities of this case based on the coexistence experienced in the field and the construction of history based on the narratives of its residents.