It is no miracle, as some have claimed it would be necessary, but for Álvaro Araújo, mayor of Vila Real de Santo António (VRSA), and for the 70 families who will be able to stay in the houses acquired by the municipality on Friday, putting an end to years of uncertainty, will be "the best Christmas present ever".
This statement by the mayor of the municipality was made during a symbolic ceremony that took place this Tuesday, the 20th, in VRSA, to mark the signing of contracts between the municipality and the residents of the houses, which took place days before.
The occasion was attended by Pedro Nuno Santos, Minister of Infrastructure and Housing, who oversees the 1st Right, the program that allowed this happy outcome.
In the case of these 70 houses, if there was a miracle, it would be achieved by the municipal executive of Vila Real, to buy them without spending a cent, although they have been paid for.
It seems impossible, but it's not. The 70 dwellings, which cost around 8,8 million euros, were acquired under the 1st Right Program and fully paid for with funds from the Recovery and Resilience Plan.
And the feeling of divine intervention is inflated by the fact that people are involved who, for a long time, fought desperately not to be homeless, almost losing hope.
The fight began, more precisely, in «the end of April 2021», when residents of the Luz do Guadiana, BelaVista and Foz do Guadiana buildings «began to receive proposals for the purchase of housing», on the same day that they were « informed of the termination of the lease contracts», said José Vicente, representative of the injured parties, at yesterday's ceremony.
The landlord, he accused, «represented by a real estate fund, acted in bad faith, harassing the families that reside there. He did everything to get us away from the dwellings ».
Since then, he confessed, there have been “many sleepless nights, families who have seen their projects blocked. The fear of being on the street was real. There was only one path left for us: that of struggle».
Residents appealed to the Chamber, «since the buildings were built on municipal land», which provided «some legal support», but did not present, at first, any solution.
This would arrive with the entry of Álvaro Araújo, who took office as president about a year ago.
«This new executive fought alongside us, gave true hope, gave light to our lives and kept his word», praised the representative of the residents.
For this, the Chamber had, on the one hand, to convince the Government to allocate funds from the PRR for this specific purpose, but also to negotiate with the real estate funds that represented the landlords.
“The negotiation was not easy. But, thanks to our persistence and negotiating power, we were able to buy for a value far below what they intended and we defended the public purse, which is very important to us», he revealed to Sul Informação Alvaro Araujo.
Earlier, in his speech, the mayor of Vila Real had already stressed the importance of negotiations reaching a successful conclusion.
«A dream came true. It is with chicken skin that I address you, because I know you have suffered a lot. There are 70 families who will feel that the warmth of Christmas has finally reached their homes. It was worth insisting that our county have a Local Housing Strategy », she said.
Álvaro Araújo also stressed that «none of this would be possible without the Government», having been supported by José Vicente in thanking the guardianship, but Pedro Nuno Santos returned the praise.
"There are only two entities responsible for this being resolved: the residents, who never gave up fighting for their rights, and the city council executive, who if he had not moved, the money would go elsewhere", said the minister.
The problem of these 70 families is solved, but the VRSA Chamber has much more ambitious plans, which are laid down in the Local Housing Strategy, which covers 2139 people integrated in 824 households, with an estimated investment of around 107 million euros, mostly for municipal promotion (87 million euros), in which what was made official yesterday is already included.
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