The purpose of this research is to understand the dynamics of intergovernmental relations in the process of implementing a federal program at a local level, for a closer look at the day to day shared management of policies which involve more than one level of government. Although intergovernmental relations refer to a series of public actors, this analysis focuses on the roles and responsibilities of state bureaucrats in intergovernmental management, paying attention to its activities, attitudes and perceptions in the interaction process established with the federal government. In this work we will study this dynamic in the management of the Program My Home My Life (Programa Minha Casa Minha Vida - PMCMV) in the State of Sao Paulo, based on a partnership created between the federal and state governments for the implementation of PMCMV on State land. Accordingly, we shall study the process which led the Sao Paulo State Government to contribute its own financial resources to supplement the federal subsidy thereby rendering the PMCMV project feasible on São Paulo. Furthermore, we shall examine the negotiations related to alterations in the original design of the program, such as an increase in the size of the housing units. The role played by the Paulista Social Housing Agency (Agência Paulista de Habitação Social - Casa Paulista) is essential in this process, taking the form of the organizational structure which negotiated the partnership with the federal government. Based on interviews with managers of the Paulista Social Housing Agency in charge of running the program, we shall attempt to understand the dynamic of intergovernmental relations in the implementation process, based on two elements: (i) the negotiating process undertaken, especially with a view to strategies mobilized for gearing the program to local interests; and (ii) the way in which managers perceive the interactions and the types of links established with federal bureaucracies in this process. We shall study how bureaucrats perceive pre-defined federal programs, particularly if they understand federal programs as an opportunity to negotiate adjustments for the local level. Generally speaking, this dissertation is based on the idea that institutional arrangement in the area of housing and specific PMCMV regulations provide the general framework within which interactive links develop between sub-national bureaucracies and their federal counterparts. It is understood, therefore, that PMCMV regulations and legacies within the area of housing affect the way in which bureaucracies act and perceive established intergovernmental links. Special attention shall be given in this discussion to the relationship which the PMCMV established with the remaining housing policies, becoming the policy drawn up and executed outside the rationale of the Social National Housing System. This particularity of the PMCMV suggests that negotiations and agreements throughout the Program’s shared management may have taken place, to a large degree, outside the institutional parameters of a system, forming more informal patterns of interaction between bureaucracies.