The Housing Minister acknowledged this Saturday the importance of increasing the public housing stock in Portugal, but warned that “there is no one-size-fits-all solution” to housing problems and that the solution includes “multiple tools.”
“There is no silver bullet to solve housing problems, we need to find several tools,” Marina Goncalves said during a speech at the Socialist Academy, which will last until Sunday in Évora.
Young people in the room asked the Minister about the current housing crisis, starting with him emphasizing that this problem is not unique to Portugal.
According to Marina Gonçalves, the country compares poorly with other European Union countries when it comes to public housing stock, admitting that Portugal is one of the countries with the lowest score in this area.
The minister admitted that if Portugal had more public housing, it would be easier to meet this challenge, but warned that this is not an exceptional solution, arguing that even the Netherlands, “which has a large public housing stock, faces a problem” Exactly the same problems,” recalls a recent conversation he had with a colleague from that country.
Regarding the “More Housing” program, which was vetoed by the President of the Republic Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa and which the PS has already announced that it will confirm in the Assembly of the Republic, Marina Gonçalves stressed that none of the measures “is really an innovation, even if sometimes it manifests itself in public debate.”
“But in fact, these are measures that are already in place in other countries, they are being discussed, and every day we see new measures that are very similar to the ones that we are discussing, in terms of not just local deployment, but, in fact, in terms of market regulation,” he added.
The minister stressed that a “very important part” of this government package “is balance,” arguing that housing cannot be discussed “without understanding how it co-exists in a healthy way with tourism, because there is a point where they come together.” or at least for them to touch each other.”
The debate was moderated by MEP Pedro Márquez and included Amadora City Council President Carla Tavares, who also insisted on the need for balance in housing policy, saying that “tourism cannot suddenly become responsible for all the evils of humanity. “
Rejecting extreme debate on the topic, Marina Gonçalves said it was “very difficult” to discuss measures at the political level “when on the other side we have ‘let’s expropriate’ and ‘let’s put an end to tourism’.”
The Housing Minister stressed that the Government identified the issue as a “public policy priority” in 2015 and that it was “not a new priority”.
“And we continue to do so, and that is why we still want this dialogue to take place at the European level,” he stressed after Portuguese Prime Minister António Costa sent several priorities to the EU’s European Commission last week. countries by 2024, including the European Affordable Housing Initiative.
Marina Gonçalves also gave the example of a health center in the municipality of Amadora, which closed ten years ago and is empty, and which by the end of the year, “if all goes well,” will be available for housing.
Author: Lusa
Source: CM Jornal
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