A dozen cases have already been resolved, but also "concern" in relation to others that are still waiting for a solution, despite the processes being "underway". The mayor of Monchique met on Wednesday with the minister of Infrastructure and Housing in Lisbon to talk about what has been done to recover houses burned in the great fire last summer and told Sul Informação what came out of this meeting.
The meeting – in which the secretary of State for Housing Ana Pinho and a representative of the Institute of Housing and Urban Rehabilitation (IHRU) also took part – also served to align strategies for the future, allowing for unlocking applications for the Gateway program that are still unresolved.
«The meeting with Minister Pedro Nuno Santos was very good, he showed that he had a practical view of things. He was surprised by some of the difficulties we have been facing, because, according to the minister, it is the Gateway program itself that has to adapt to people's needs – and this is a vision I have had for a long time. But there are many things that the program does not cover», summarized the Monchiquense mayor.
"Right now, there are six cases that concern me the most, which are those of people who do not agree either with the proposals or with the rules of the Porta de Entrada program," said Rui André.
Those injured by the Monchique fire are in limbo. «The Open Door program, which at the beginning was something that had never been tried before, after the Monchique fire is a much more agile instrument. Still, there is a lot to correct," he added.
One of the problems that arose was the fact that the program did not address the situations of people who want to continue living in houses that burned down, even though they were not their property.
“There are people who rented a house that burned down, but for whatever reason they want to stay there: for family reasons, because they are already rooted in the community and do not want to leave or because they have interests in agriculture. But the IHRU's proposal is to lease elsewhere,” said the mayor of Monchique.
Taking this into account, “now the Government has committed, through the minister, to try to change the rules, so that we can respond to these people and, for example, convert the lease amount into financial support to carry out the work. But, at the moment, this is not possible».
This would also imply contracts that oblige the owner to keep the person there for a certain number of years and for a certain amount, "safeguarding both the interest of the tenants and the State".
This intention of the Socialist Government has already arrived, however, at the Assembly of the Republic, where minister Pedro Nuno Santos was heard this Friday – the meeting with Rui André was linked to this passage in Parliament.
Even so, and despite the "good will of the Minister of Infrastructure and Housing", Cristóvão Norte, an Algarvian deputy elected by the PSD (the same party as Rui André), considered that "very little has been done" with regard to the reconstruction of the burned houses and that, "had it not been for the commitment of the autarchy, things would have been even worse".
“The government has failed, he continues to say, but there is still time to improve the regime and do justice to the populations that feel abandoned”, namely through the promotion of changes to the Porta de Entrada programme.
After the Wednesday meeting, Rui André took the opportunity to make a public review of the situation, using the social network Facebook. Here, the mayor of Monchique reported that, among the 51 requests for support, 16 were excluded for different reasons, namely the fact that they were not the 1st house, for withdrawal, lack of documentation or for having received compensation in other ways, either from public funds or from insurance companies.
Already contracted with the IHRU are the solutions for seven of the homeless, "six of which refer to permanent lease contracts and one to rehabilitation works that have already started."
Very close to being resolved are three other situations, one involving renting and another two involving the purchase of houses.
“On Friday came the proposal to make an addendum to the protocol, to add something that had not been thought of so far: the possibility that those who did not want to recover the house could buy elsewhere. This was said and there are even proposals from people who want to buy, with very advanced processes, but we have to change the protocol. I ended up doing it today [July 4th], by order, so as not to waste any more time waiting for the next Chamber Meeting», said Rui André.
“I'm going to submit the order to the IHRU right away, so that the cases that are pending, which are two, can be unlocked. I hope that next week the deeds can be done», he added.
However, there are ten processes that are already in the institute “in the process of being studied”, but awaiting the delivery of the last documents by the owners.
“One problem we're having right now is getting the construction budgets. I would even say that finding contractors to carry out the works is our biggest problem at the moment», said the Monchiquense mayor.
It is that, “to complete the processes, we will have to submit budget proposals from three contractors. But there are no companies available to do these works».
Thus, Wednesday's meeting “also served to see a more agile way of approaching this issue. The IRHU wants everything to be done directly by the injured parties. The Chamber can only provide support. But I think that, when it comes to budgets, we will have to think of a solution that involves inviting a company to come here, as a whole, to carry out about ten contracts. Because, one by one, we're not going to make it».
In this way, the chance of finding interested parties would be increased, since the works, «individually, are of little importance, such as roofs or other simple things». This is a solution that the public institute is willing to accept.
“I have to bring together ten owners and say: I will consult with several companies, including all your projects. Contractors make the budgets, but then the contracting will have to be done individually. I've already decided that I'll get ahead to do this work, even if I don't have that competence, to make interventions more attractive», he explained.
There are also processes that still depend on the architectural design. “We have an agreement with the Order of Architects, but there are five processes that are a little late. In these cases, we are going to hire a technical office, which does not only the architecture, but also the specialties, so that these processes can also be quickly transferred to the construction phase».
There are four other cases that "are being resolved by a means other than the Gateway program, through agreements with other entities".
Rui André also made a point of talking about "things that are not true and that came out in the Media", assuring that the City Council has done everything to streamline the processes and that they "are under way". “If there are some that are more behind it is due to their complexity”, since there are, in some cases, problems related to heirs and sharing, as well as situations where the houses were illegal and cannot be regularized.
“In practice, we have six months of work, as the protocol with the IHRU was only signed in December. In a normal situation, the process would not proceed as quickly. There are those who received insurance money right after the fire and still haven't carried out the works”, he illustrated.
"Despite everything, and the journalistic use and some people of the difficult situation of these families, the certainty is that we are doing everything transparently and rigorously so that all those in need are helped", assured Rui André.
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