Government Faces Housing Crisis: Dozens Await Rent Support in Lisbon
Lisbon – Dozens of citizens, some of whom arrived before dawn, formed a queue this Monday at the door of the Institute for Housing and Urban Rehabilitation (IHRU) in Lisbon. The goal was to get one of the scarce 20 daily tickets for service and seek support for paying their house rent. This desperate scenario highlights the growing housing crisis affecting the Portuguese capital and other large cities.
The \"Porta-a-Porta\" movement organized a protest outside the IHRU facilities, between 7:30 am and 9:30 am, to demand an effective response to rent support requests. According to André Escoval, the movement's spokesman, letters will be sent to the Secretary of State for Housing and the Minister of Infrastructure and Housing, warning of the seriousness of the situation. Escoval stressed that \"the problems extend from the north to the south of the country, with cuts in rent support and in the 'Porta 65' program.\" The limitation of only 10 tickets in the morning and 10 in the afternoon for in-person service in Lisbon and Porto, and the inaccessibility of online and telephone channels, worsens the situation, making access to support \"impossible\" for many.
Criticism of IHRU's ineffectiveness has been a constant from housing rights advocates. The delays, which in some cases exceed \"more than a year,\" have led \"several families to desperation across the country.\" \"Porta-a-Porta\"'s complaint about the inaccessibility of IHRU's communication channels (telephone and internet) forces citizens to travel physically to the service centers, which are only located in Lisbon and Porto, to try to resolve \"a problem that is national.\"
António Benjamim Costa Pereira, president of IHRU, acknowledged the flaws in the system. Speaking to the Lusa agency on October 14, after a hearing in the Assembly of the Republic, he admitted that the situation is \"very serious.\" The delay in responding to the nearly 60,000 beneficiaries of the Extraordinary Rent Support Program (PAER) with pending situations is one of the most critical points. This situation reflects a significant gap in the public institutions' capacity to respond to the population's housing needs.
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The human dimension of this crisis was palpable at the protest. One of the banners held by the demonstrators expressed the harsh reality: \"tired of choosing between paying rent or eating.\" Maria Santos Godinho, a 59-year-old caregiver for the elderly from Odivelas, arrived at 4:45 am to help a friend who, at the same age, was facing serious problems in his home in Monte da Caparica, including the explosion of an electrical panel due to humidity, leaving him without power. \"This is worse than going to the doctor. We have to come here to sleep. They don't answer e-mails, they don't answer phones. You have to come here and you have to put your foot down. Otherwise, they send us away without solving anything,\" she vented, illustrating the bureaucracy and lack of support.
Further back in the queue, Raquel Djaló, 32, a single mother of two children aged 14 and 12, reported that her rent support simply stopped being deposited in her account, without any \"explanation or justification.\" Her indignation was evident: \"There have to be more tickets. We leave work to come here. I had to leave my daughter with other people to be here at 6 o'clock.\" The resident of Amadora, with roots in Guinea-Bissau, stressed the direct impact of these failures on the professional and family lives of citizens.
The crisis in rent support and the ineffectiveness of IHRU raise important questions about housing policy in Portugal. The lack of response for thousands of families, the halt of the 'Porta 65' program, and the inaccessibility of services are symptoms of a structural problem that requires urgent intervention. The current situation may have long-term repercussions on social and economic stability, affecting the general perception of the rental market and trust in government institutions. The discussion about regulating local accommodation and rent control, as proposed by Rede H, becomes even more pertinent in this context of housing scarcity. For more information on the real estate market and housing policies in Portugal, consult the Regulatory and Legal Frameworks section on our blog. Follow the Politics News to understand how government decisions impact the real estate sector. For those seeking professional support in navigating the market, Accountants specializing in Property Tax can offer guidance on the tax implications of rental policies.