the government started to actively try to eliminate and regulate the construction of these types of housing complexes - In 1822 the government introduced a tax on companies that built housing complexes for their workers. 

The tax policy had the support of the medical academic community, whose members were deeply concerned by endemic diseases caused by poor conditions in these complexes - The new governmental decree, however, augmented the process of 'favelization,' displacing workers to the city's hills.

as a result, the empire facilitated the construction of healthy housing settlements, called vilas operárias and vilas higiênicas, by offering developers the right to take lands and dismantle existing Cortiços and the elimination of import taxes on construction materials.