higher than the national average of 4.2Percent, and per capita income is 66Percent higher than the Brazilian average. Between 1975 and 1995, Curitiba's domestic product grew by some 75Percent more than the entire State of Paraná, and 48Percent more than Brazil as a whole. In 1994, tourism generated US$ 280 million, 4Percent of the city's net income. Curitiba has municipal health, education and day care networks, neighbourhood libraries shared by schools and citizens, and Citizenship Streets, where buildings provide essential public services, sports and cultural facilities near mass transportation terminals. At the Open University, residents can take courses in subjects such as mechanics, hair styling and environmental protection for a small fee. Policies for job creation and income generation also became part of the city's strategic planning in the 1990s, for the metropolitan area as well as the city.
Since 1990, the Municipal Housing Fund has been providing financial support to housing for lower income populations. After national housing finance collapsed in 1985, just as people from the countryside poured into Curitiba, the city's public housing program bought one of the few remaining large plots of land, "Novo Bairro" (New Neighborhood), as home for 50,000 families. While landowners built the houses themselves, each received a pair of trees and an hour's consultation with an architect to help them develop their plan. COHAB also built Technology Street, an avenue of 24 homes in the centre of Novo Bairro, each built using different construction techniques. There are also six massive shopping malls in Curitiba shopping: Mueller, Estacao, Curitiba, Crystal, Palladium and Park Barigüi. The Mueller is one of the best shopping malls, coupled with Crystal, which is a high class, haute-couture based mall. Curitiba and Estacao are smaller, while less expensive kinds of shopping malls, and the newer one, Palladium, is one of the biggest. The Rua das
