Albufeira, Faro, Lagos and Portimão, in the Algarve, and Beja and Évora, in Alentejo, are among the 19 cities that will mobilize today, Saturday, to participate in the demonstration called by the Casa Para Viver platform in defense of the right to housing.
“We are not giving up”, writes, on social media, the collective of more than 100 associations that took thousands of people to the streets in two previous protests, in April and September last year.
“The 25th of April turns 50 in 2024. Among many achievements, which we will also celebrate, we need to remember a right that was left behind: the right to housing”, highlights the platform, stressing: “We cannot leave the streets in a such an important moment for the population living in Portugal”.
Albufeira, Aveiro, Beja, Benavente, Braga, Coimbra, Covilhã, Évora, Faro, Funchal, Lagos, Leiria, Lisbon, Portalegre, Portimão, Porto, Setúbal, Sines and Viseu are the cities that responded affirmatively to the public appeal “We demand solutions!”, intended “to make it very clear that the next government needs to aim The main focus is resolving the housing crisis”.
This is how they present themselves: “We are tired of the same old conversation. At the fifty anniversary of the 25th of April, we continue to struggle to reach the end of the month, with miserable salaries, without being able to buy a house or rent a house and without money to live with dignity. We have to share a house until the age of forty and we are pushed far from city centers, condemned to wasting two or three hours each day just traveling, living in overcrowding, in houses without adequate conditions, or in panic due to the lack of alternatives. when the owner decides not to renew the contract. We are victims of eviction to make way for hotels, tourist investments and luxury condominiums.”
In view of this, they defend measures such as lowering house payments; lower and regulate rents and extend the duration of contracts; put an end to evictions, without alternative housing; review all licenses for tourism speculation; the end of the Non-Habitual Residents Statute, incentives for digital nomads, tax exemptions for luxury real estate and real estate funds; immediately place vacant properties belonging to large owners, funds and companies on the market; increase the public housing stock.
Saturday's demonstration is the third for the right to housing organized by Casa Para Viver and aims to “mark the electoral campaign” for the early legislative elections on March 10th.
“It’s good to see that this social movement has managed to maintain consistency over time, since April 1, 2023”, Vasco Barata, one of the platform’s spokespersons and member of the Chão das Lutas association, highlighted to Lusa.
“This gives us the guarantee that society is organized to demand answers to the housing problem and that this will inevitably continue after the elections”, he considers.
In Lisbon, protesters will travel between Alameda Dom Afonso Henriques and Arco da Rua Augusta, where, in addition to interventions by the organizers, there will also be concerts by artists such as Catarina Branco, Jhon Douglas, Luca Argel and Luís Severo.
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