Offer refused: “it’s up to Portugal to fix housing crisis“
A bizarre argument is coming out of the ‘crisis’ of shanty developments springing up here, there and everywhere – and then being demolished by exasperated town councils.
With the government of São Tomé e Principe “guaranteeing” that it will pay the homeward journey of São Toméans rendered homeless in the recent Bairro do Talude demolitions, Vida Justa – the movement supporting citizens from the devastated neighbourhood – maintains that this is not the solution.
“The solution lies in the Portuguese government finding a way to ease the problem of access to the housing market, both for immigrants and for Portuguese citizens”, says Engels Amaral.
Vida Justa accepts that most Portuguese nationals have families that ‘support’ housing issues now that the market has become so impenetrable for those on low incomes. ‘Immigrants do not have this support – therefore it is the government’s responsibility to ensure that they get it’.
The offer thus of free flights back to the country from which most of Bairro do Talude’s residents hail is being rejected.
Instead, Vida Justa continues its campaign of street protests, pushing for a national emergency housing plan.
The movement will be taking to the streets of Lisbon again today, for a rally outside the headquarters of the Council of Ministers this evening “against the destruction of homes, evictions and lies”.
The plan reportedly involves delivering an Open Letter, entitled: “Stop evictions and resolve the housing situation”, signed by more than 3,200 people and around 150 ‘supporting organizations’.
“The government and local authorities are doing nothing to solve the housing problem due to real estate speculation, excessive tourism, and the lack of public housing construction,” says Vida Justa.
Specifically, the movement calls for a response to the “more than 90 homeless families and more than 60 children living out in the open” in Bairro do Talude, in the municipality of Loures, and in Estrada Militar da Mina de Água, in the municipality of Amadora, after local authorities demolished shanty buildings.
Vida Justa claims there are “23 shanty neighborhoods in Greater Lisbon” and notes that “there are more and more working families who cannot rent a house or even a room.”
Specifically addressing the municipalities of Loures and Amadora, Vida Justa laments that “the only thing they do is criminalise working-class people and blame them for criminal policies”.
Loures mayor Ricardo Leão has already called Vida Justa out for ‘instrumentalising’ these families and using them, in his opinion, to push an agenda.
Certainly, the government’s focus on immigration into the future is not to have large numbers of immigrants arriving in this country without a job, and/ or the wherewithal to afford a roof over their heads.
The masterplan is for employers to ‘recruit’ workers from overseas, through consulates. This would preclude situations that exist now.
Source material: Observador/ Lusa/
