At least 19 cities will mobilize today to take part in the demonstration called by the Casa Para Viver platform to defend the right to housing.
“We won’t give up,” writes the collective of more than 100 associations that took to the streets in two previous protests in April and September last year.
“April 25 will be 50 years old in 2024. Among many achievements, which we will also be celebrating, we need to remember a right that was left behind: the right for housing,” says the platform, stressing: “We cannot leave the streets at such an important time for the people living in Portugal.”
Albufeira, Aveiro, Beja, Benavente, Braga, Coimbra, Covilhã, Évora, Faro, Funchal, Lagos, Leiria, Lisboa, Portalegre, Portimão, Porto, Setúbal, Sines and Viseu are the cities that have responded in the affirmative to the public appeal “We demand solutions!”, aimed at “making it clear that the next government needs to have the resolution of the housing crisis as its main goal”.
This is how they put it: “We’re fed up with the same old talk. On the eve of the 50th anniversary of April 25, we are still struggling to make ends meet on miserable salaries, unable to buy or rent a house, and with no money to live in dignity. We have to share a house until we’re forty and we’re pushed away from city centers, condemned to waste two or three hours a day just commuting, living in overcrowded, unsuitable housing, or panicking at the lack of alternatives when the landlord 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 are advocating measures such as lowering housing payments; lowering and regulating rents and extending the duration of contracts; putting an end to evictions without alternative housing; reviewing all licenses for tourist speculation; ending the Statute for Non-Habitual Residents, incentives for digital nomads, tax exemptions for luxury real estate and real estate funds; immediately putting vacant properties owned by large landlords, funds and companies on the market; increasing 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 parliamentary elections on March 10.
“It’s good to see that this social movement has managed to remain constant over time, since April 1, 2023,” Vasco Barata, one of the platform’s spokespeople and a member of the Chão das Lutas association, told 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 said.
In Lisbon, the demonstrators will take the route between Alameda Dom Afonso Henriques and Arco da Rua Augusta, where, in addition to speeches by the organizers, there will also be concerts by artists such as Catarina Branco, Jhon Douglas, Luca Argel and Luís Severo.