On Tuesday, the Casa para Viver platform praised the government’s willingness to continue talking about the housing crisis, stressing the importance of the executive recognizing that current policies “are not working.”
At the end of a meeting with Housing Minister Rita Silva of the Vida Justa movement and one of the representatives of the Casa para Viver platform, she told Luca that she noted Marina Gonçalves’ “openness to future discussions.”
“We had this first meeting and we will return to discussions more often, and this is good,” said Rita Silva, emphasizing that “it is very important that the government engages in dialogue with the movements in the streets, with the thousands of people who are talking on the street, that the measures taken do not solve the housing problem.”
Today’s meeting at the Ministry of Housing in Lisbon was attended by representatives of various movements on the Casa para Viver platform, such as Vida Justa, Habita, Stop Evictions, Chão de Lutas and Porta a Porta, accompanied by “several families who have already been evicted or are about to be evicted “
The meeting discussed evictions, one of the main issues and priorities of the platform, with a demand for their suspension, as happened during the Covid-19 pandemic, but this proposal was not accepted by the government official.
“The minister said that she was not considering this proposal and would not suspend it. We insisted and made several recommendations in terms of the law itself and the Civil Code,” said Rita Silva.
At the meeting, he added, the platform insisted that “the planned public response is not working.”
“Faced with absurd market prices and a lack of government response, there is a huge increase in evictions and resistance to contract renewals, which are invisible evictions, meaning many people have no solution,” he said.
Rita Silva also said the minister said she would study proposals that deal with issues such as rent control or over-localization of local housing.
“The government has very specific policies that help property speculation and it needs to stop,” he said.
The meeting with the Minister of Housing was requested by the Casa para Viver platform, which organized the demonstration on September 30 in 24 cities of the country, as well as the protest on April 1, and brought together more than a hundred associations and collectives.
The manifesto underlying the Casa para Viver platform includes measures such as “effective market regulation” through rent reductions, automatic renewals of current leases and fixing the cost of loan payments for first homes. .
At the same time, the movement calls for an “immediate review of tourism speculation licenses” and a “real end” to golden visas, non-custodial residency status, incentives for digital nomads and tax breaks for luxury properties and companies and investment funds.
Author: Lusa
Source: CM Jornal
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