IRIS NASCIMENTO is one of those lucky people who lives right on the beach in the north-east of Brazil but she has fought hard to stay here - all of the 58 neighbouring houses have been knocked down - and Iris knows that she will be moved eventually.

The problem is that her house is on prime development land and is, in fact, right in the middle of a road from the wealthy east side of the city of Fortaleza into the poorer west.

"It is so unjust. The rich people near here didn't have to move. Politicians are not interested in poor people they just fulfill their own interests," she says.

What is happening here is occurring in many towns and cities in Brazil, says a spokesperson of Cearah Periferia, an organisation, funded by Trócaire in Ireland, that is training poorer people to represent their communities' interests in city planning. "Cities have to develop in a participatory way," she says.

Fortaleza, with its population of 2.6 million, has had a number of masterplans over the years and the most recent has pledged to involve poorer communities in this city which has distinct divisions between rich and poor: with tall apartments blocks, smart shops and hotels on the east side and the poorer communities on the west side, where fishing families traditionally lived.

Hundreds of people live in favelas, or shantytowns, and as the smart end of the city expands there is an issue about where they will go.

"The idea was to take out communities and build up the beautiful coastline along the west for rich people and tourists," says the spokesperson. "The coast road was extended from the east of the city to the west with the idea of attracting development into that part of the city."

And it is right on that road that Iris's house stands. When she and her 58 neighbours were told that their houses were to be knocked down Iris, who has lived here for 23 years, was horrified.

"I fought so hard to buy this house and had paid for it by then. I rented for 20 years and always dreamt of having my own home," says the women who works as an administrative assistant but is out on leave to look after her brother Jaimie who had a stroke.

Some people were offered compensation but Iris refused it. "No value could be put on this house. I wouldn't want to move whatever you paid me."

While some of her neighbours were happy to be relocated - because they moved to places with better utilities - others wanted to stay but eventually gave up the fight, leaving Iris and her brother as the last people on this part of the beach, their sea-battered home a testament to how emotionally attached people become to the place they live in.

As her neighbours' homes were being bulldozed she did worry that hers might be too.

"My walls began to shake and I sat here worrying that they would knock my house down," says Iris, who has taken in one of her former neighbours.

"Any development needs to be about providing sensible societies for people and they should take account of the environment, ecology and sustainability of the community," says Irish who is preparing for a court case.

"I did try to get people together to fight this but they were scared. A lot of the families now tell me that they wished they had stayed."