The family, consisting of a couple and an elderly dependent, evicted this Wednesday morning in Arroyos, Lisbon, will spend the night in local housing, but on Thursday they will again have no alternative accommodation, a source from the Habita association said. .
“Everyone who was around them, groups like Habita and Stop Despejos, as well as the people who came, saved up money and they will have a place to stay tonight,” João Cruz told Lusa, emphasizing that the accommodation “was paid for out of these people’s pockets.”
The couple and the 89-year-old man, who uses a wheelchair, will live in local housing “accessible to Alsina’s father,” the campaigner said.
“But tomorrow [quinta-feira] they have nowhere else to go,” he added.
We are talking about the eviction ordered by the court of Carlos Almeida, Alsina Lourenço and her father.
The eviction took place on Wednesday morning and the family was given no alternative.
In a conversation with Lusa, Carlos Almeida said that “in principle there is already a corner” where they can spend the night, without knowing exactly where.
“That’s the only thing I know,” he said, adding that that’s what his wife told him as he was still outside the apartment where they lived, storing his belongings.
In the afternoon, activists and Alsina Lourenço contacted the Ministry of Housing asking for help, but to no avail.
According to João Cruz from Habit, “no government agency has found a solution” as families and groups put pressure on the Ministry of Housing, Lisbon City Council, Santa Casa da Misericórdia and Line 144 (National Social Assistance Line).
The institutions even offered some answers, but “everyone tried to separate them,” so they were not accepted.
The family refused to leave T4 in the Arroyos neighborhood, where the couple Carlos and Alsina lived, as well as an elderly man, Alsina’s father (the latter two for several decades), because as of 2020 they had not found a market-rate home with “an income compatible with their income” and in which they could live together, including the elderly person whom the woman takes care of.
The authorities had already tried to evict the family on the 3rd, but several members of the public and Habita members gathered at the site, and despite the presence of two cars with PSP members, no attempt was made to enter the apartment and remove the family.
According to Carlos Almeida, Alcina was about 7 years old when she came to live with her father in the house, rented in the name of an aunt who had helped raise her but had since passed away and the landlord had ignored attempts to renegotiate and adjust the rent.
According to Habita, the family’s total income is around 1,200 euros, and in recent years it has tried unsuccessfully to access a home on the housing market, as well as with the city council and Santa Casa da Misericordia.
On October 3, the Santa Casa da Misericordia de Lisboa, contacted by Lusa, assured that “it is monitoring the situation in the household in question” and that it is committed to finding “an emergency solution, taking into account the imminent implementation of the law.” eviction suit.”
However, the family refused this offer because they expected the elderly man to return home.
Alsina Lourenço, according to the Lisbon City Council, has been registered on the Habitar Lisboa platform since 2021 and has submitted two applications for participation in the supported rental program, but “the score obtained, according to the socio-economic need weighting matrix, does not reach the value that opens access to municipal housing “
Author: Lusa
Source: CM Jornal
I’m Tifany Hawkins, a professional journalist with years of experience in news reporting. I currently work for a prominent news website and write articles for 24NewsReporters as an author. My primary focus is on economy-related stories, though I am also experienced in several other areas of journalism.