Protests Scheduled at Housing Institute in Lisbon and Porto Over Support Payment Delays
The 'Porta a Porta' housing advocacy movement has called for demonstrations at the Lisbon and Porto offices of the Institute of Housing and Urban Rehabilitation (IHRU) this coming Monday. The protests are intended to demand a response to the extensive delays in processing and payment of state-managed rent support programs.
In their announcement, the movement demands “an IHRU at the service of true public housing policies.” They denounce a system that leaves “tenants without answers, rent supports unpaid, [and] young people waiting for Porta 65,” a youth rental assistance program. The group has been vocal about what it calls the IHRU's failure to manage its responsibilities, pointing to delays exceeding a year which have pushed many families into desperate situations across Portugal.
André Escoval, a spokesperson for Porta a Porta, recently told the Lusa news agency that the situation is “very serious.” He highlighted the IHRU's “brutal inability to respond to the various programs.” The movement also claims that official communication channels with the institute, including phone lines and internet portals, are “inaccessible.” This forces individuals to travel to the only two physical service centers in the country, Lisbon and Porto, for assistance. Reports from people waiting in line in Lisbon suggest that only 20 service tickets are distributed daily, further limiting access to help.
The gravity of the situation has been acknowledged by the IHRU's president, António Benjamim Costa Pereira. Speaking after a hearing at the Assembly of the Republic, Pereira admitted the scenario is “gravíssimo” (very serious). He specifically mentioned the delayed response for nearly 60,000 beneficiaries of the Extraordinary Rent Support Program (PAER) whose cases remain unresolved. These legal updates and administrative failures are critical for tenants and landlords alike.
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Pereira stated that the root cause “is not in the customer service, the problem is in the program, which was poorly designed, poorly made, and creates these problems.” He confirmed that the service centers are consistently overwhelmed. “We always have a full service center, that’s a fact,” he noted, while assuring that his teams in both Porto and Lisbon are undertaking a “Herculean effort” to try and mitigate the ongoing issues. For anyone involved in the property market, understanding these governmental challenges is essential, and consulting with professionals like English-speaking accountants can provide clarity on financial implications.
The planned concentrations are set to take place on Monday, the 27th, between 7:30 and 9:30 in the morning. The ongoing failures within the IHRU represent a significant challenge to the stability of the housing sector and the effectiveness of public policy aimed at supporting vulnerable tenants.
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