House prices and inflation lead to new homelessness in Portugal

Rising house prices and inflation are creating a new type of homelessness in Portugal: socially integrated people who find themselves isolated, warn associations working on the issue and poverty.

“We walk along Gare do Oriente, Saldanha, Martim Moniz or other streets of Lisbon (…) and we hardly find drug addicts or alcoholics” living on the streets, as was the case with the homeless in the past, says the leader of the Remara association, Luís Filipe Macedo.

Now they are “healthy people fighting for their lives,” he added.

On the eve of the presentation in parliament of the National Strategy for the Integration of the Homeless (ENIPSSA) for 2025-2030, the leader admits that cases on the streets are increasing.

“We have noticed that the situation with the homeless is not improving, is not decreasing. There are more and more people on the streets, in unusual places,” he said, citing the example of his association’s food service.

“We always leave with three bowls of soup and 250 snacks and give them until they run out, but many people don’t get food,” he explained.

According to Luis Filipe Macedo, “this problem is aggravated by the emergence of a new profile, an increasing number and younger emigrants,” and “it is difficult to imagine how some people live in some places in Lisbon.”

The official pointed to rising housing prices and the cost of living as the main factors behind the phenomenon.

“Some may even have some kind of job or odd jobs, but they cannot have homes and continue to live in tents,” the Remar leader said.

In turn, the head of the Kaish association, Sandra Camara Pestana, recalls that the vocation of her association is to monitor reintegration processes, provide housing and support in finding work.

Despite this, Kais has noticed an increase in cases of homelessness and social isolation, some of whom are former users who now face economic problems.

“People work to survive” and “live in limbo,” he said. “If a couple is unemployed, it’s terrible and life stops,” he added.

“The inflationary measures that we are experiencing, the housing shortage. If people do not have housing, they do not have a stable life, and without it they will not be able to find a job,” the leader of Zeiss emphasized.

In Porto, the association supported “a couple who went to work every day and lived on the street”, “a situation that is not sustainable”, explained Sandra Camara Pestana.

In cases identified, the Remar association tries to “welcome” them, trying to provide them with sleep and other care to help them integrate.

But “they have to want it,” stressed Luis Felipe Macedo.

At the end of 2023, the coordinator of the National Strategy for the Integration of the Homeless (ENIPSSA), Enrique Joaquim, acknowledged the increase in the number of people living on the streets.

The most recent data, for 2022, shows that 10,700 people will be homeless in 2022.

Alentejo, the Lisbon metropolitan area and the Algarve were the regions with the highest rates, with 2.13, 1.60 and 1.51 homeless people per thousand inhabitants, respectively.