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“As of today, seven homes remain in the 6th neighborhood of Maio, which were protected by the protocol signed with the Institute of Housing and Urban Rehabilitation (IHRU),” advances the Câmara da Amadora, in a written response to the Lusa agency.
Located 15 minutes by car from Lisbon, or Bairro 6 de Maio and two 35 precarious housing nuclei not concelho da Amadora integrated with the Special Re-housing Program (PER), in that to Câmara assinou, in 1995, or agreement for eradication thereof.
“In this neighborhood, 446 families were registered in the PER, two of these families still remain in another nucleus covered by the same program,” reports the municipality of Amadora, district of Lisbon, and adds that the housing response to these families went through the resettlement in the municipal housing stock or granting of municipal financial aid.
The municipal investment amounted to “more than five million euros” for the granting of economic support in the PER, explained the municipality.
In 2018, after several demolitions and the response of the neighbors to a housing response, the Câmara da Amadora verified the “permanence of 24 homes that were not registered” under the PER, for which a protocol was signed in June of that year . relocate them in the Institute’s housing stock.
Of the 24 families identified, seven continue to live in the neighborhood, says the municipality, pointing out difficulties in the process, the lack of housing availability and the existence of two families who rejected the relocation proposed by the IHRU.
Ensuring “all efforts” for the eradication of the neighborhood, a process that is “in the final stage”, but whose date “depends on the progress of the process of each family”, the Câmara da Amadora reinforces that houses have already been assigned to seven homes.
“Of these, four will have the works completed next week, with the works for the other three on hold, because two families have reported that they prefer to apply for alternative housing programs to resettlement and are preparing the application, and two others are not. they respond to the repeated contacts of the services and will be notified for the relocation ”, it informs.
Supporting the eradication of Barrio 6 de Maio, the president of Habita – Association for the right to housing and the city, Maria João Berhan, expresses reservations about the “rush” to relocate the remaining people, considering that there is interest in freeing the ground, because “they are disrupting plans.”
“A part of the land is municipal and others are private”, according to the Chamber, adding that, “for now, what is expected in the more immediate future is the continuation and closure of the Structural Axis (road) that connects Falagueira with CRIL ( Lisbon Interior Regional Circular) and the construction of an IPSS (Private Institution of Social Solidarity) ”.
The Habita president also warned that, with the PER, the vacant houses of the relocated families that were not demolished were soon occupied by other people, creating the “resettlement responsibility”.
Within the scope of the protocol established in 2018 with the IHRU, Maria João Berhan revealed that there are “about 20 families who had already been expelled before the recognition of this right was achieved”, and live in a situation of “great precariousness”. ”, In rented rooms, in mosques or in overcrowded family homes.
In response, the municipality said that “the protocol between the IHRU and the Amadora City Council covered the 24 families that lived in the neighborhood and were not part of the PER protocol, it is unknown who the 20 families referred to are.”
Regarding the current situation of the neighborhood, even in the context of the covid-19 pandemic, the association confirms that “many of the houses do not comply with the hygiene measures dictated by the General Directorate of Health”, considering that the neighbors ” they live in an environment of war ”, a situation that has been going on for five years, with debris, invasion of animals, from rats to snakes, and open sewers.
“There are people who have been living here for two years without water,” he continues, lamenting the lack of housing that allows resettlement and warning that “most of these people have no possibility of finding a solution in the private market” because “there is a total incompatibility between wages and incomes that are practiced ”.
Defending more public housing, the president of Habita says that “as long as people live like this it is a problem for the whole of society, the problem is mainly theirs, but not only theirs.”
