Lisbon city council wants overcrowding in homes to be reported

Lisbon city council’s housing chief says there is a “very serious” problem of overcrowding in houses in the capital, but it is necessary to “work with evidence”, namely when there are hundreds of certificates of residence in a single building. “There are buildings in the Arroios district that had hundreds of certificates of residence in a single building, this is real evidence that there is a problem there, because it is impossible to have hundreds of certificates in a single building,” said councillor Filipa Roseta (PSD). The dangers of overcrowding came to a head in the capital recently when a fire claimed the lives of two Punjabi nationals who were living in a property where there were so many ‘residents’, that they had allotted times for using mattresses for sleeping. The situation is known as “hot bedding”.