The responsibility for finding housing “is the responsibility of the families”. According to the municipality, the municipality of Loures “has in force, since August 30, 2022, the Housing Regulation of the Municipality of Loures, which includes, among others, the regime for assigning municipal housing, with the prospect of rehousing in municipal dwellings conditioned to the conditions provided for in the said regulation and in the enabling law” and stresses that “the targeted families were previously guided on the possibility of resorting to the social action service, with a view to obtaining support in the search for housing alternatives”.
Therefore, “access to public housing is invariably done through the formal application of the individual and the respective household and obeys eligibility criteria”, he explains.
To the SAPO24a source from the Municipality of Loures confirmed that Social Security will be responsible for paying for the accommodation of families who were temporarily placed in the Casa da Cultura de Sacavém and which served as an emergency shelter until “last night, after going to pensions”.
“Under the emergency plan, families will be accompanied by Social Security until they manage to find a house and whose rents will be supported for a minimum period of 6 months”, said the same source.
“They [as famílias] they have to look for a house to rent and as soon as they find it, it will be the responsibility of Social Security, because “this is an emergency relocation”
However, “they [as famílias] who have to look for a house to rent and as soon as they find it, it will be the responsibility of Social Security, because “this is an emergency relocation”, declares the source, adding that at the moment there are six families that need monitoring.
“One of the families, meanwhile, stayed at the home of relatives, and the other person, who is sick, will be in charge of the Vida e Paz association. There was also a family that refused temporary housing. So at the moment we are talking about six families, eight adults, two children and two babies”.
Meanwhile, contacted by SAPO24, Social Security replied by email that “the allocation of social housing is a responsibility of the municipalities”, without providing further clarification. Leaving, once again, the unknown for these people who are mostly elderly, some sick, including children and a young woman who is pregnant and in need of care.
Earlier this week, the Câmara de Loures confirmed to the Lusa agency that it was carrying out the demolition of “eight illegal buildings” in the town of Catujal.
According to the Habita association, the demolition took place without a prior plan for adequate relocation for people who were left on the street on a rainy day with all their belongings.
The same association also declared that it tried to oppose “the barbarism of the system that only defends property and profit and throws people into increasingly unsustainable situations of poverty and onto the street”.
But the Municipality of Loures stressed that it is complying with the national plan to eradicate shacks, which consists of demolishing illegal constructions, transferring their occupants to social housing. To SAPO24, the municipality responded, formally, saying that the reasons that led to the demolition are directly related to the “competence of the municipal councils to ensure the fight against the proliferation of new constructions of illegal origin for housing purposes, as well as to promote the demolition of tents built outside the law”.
Asked whether they had thought of alternatives for the residents of those houses, before the demolition, the executive replied that “the targeted families were informed of the illegality of the act practiced and of the need to provide for an alternative, given the impossibility of staying in that place. These steps took place in the days following the detection of new constructions and on a date prior to the communication of the demolition, carried out a few days before the demolition”, he clarifies.
According to the vice-president of the Chamber, the demolition is part of the housing policy that the municipal executive is carrying out “of great inspection in the territory in order to not allow the construction of new houses of this nature”, declared Sónia Paixão, on Tuesday, to the Lusa agency.
resurgence of stalls
The City Council recalls the problem of the resurgence of tents (illegal constructions) in the municipality. “In the territory of Loures, as in other territories, there has been a proliferation of new constructions of illegal origin for housing purposes. Currently, in the municipality of Loures, the number of squat buildings for housing purposes exceeds five hundred”, informs the Chamber in the missive requested by SAPO24.
It is “the residents themselves” who build the houses. “The autarchy has carried out systematic monitoring of housing complexes of illegal origin, promoting necessary inspection and follow-up actions, seeking to ensure the fight against the proliferation of new constructions.
SAPO24 tried to obtain a statement from the Habita association, but did not receive a response until the close of this article.
