Discussion on new public-private partnership model for affordable housing in Lisbon postponed

The proposal for a new public-private partnership model for affordable housing in Lisbon, scheduled for this Wednesday in a closed chamber meeting, was postponed by the leadership of the PSD/SDS-PP because there were no conditions for its approval, the president of the executive said.

“We are now ready to complement the public efforts of private individuals that will help hundreds of families of teachers, police officers, nurses and other professionals who can no longer pay rent in Lisbon. Unfortunately, once again we were unable to approve it,” said municipal president Carlos Moedas (PSD), which governs without an absolute majority, in a written statement sent to Luza.

Signed by Housing Councilor Filipa Roseta (PSD), the proposal for a new public-private partnership model for affordable housing, starting with the construction of 550 homes in the parishes of Benfica and Parc das Nações, assumes “incomes 20% lower than the market.”

In the opposite direction, councilors PS and PCP proposed that the income limits should not take into account the market value, but rather what is provided for in the Municipal Ordinance on the right to housing, namely from 150 to 400 euros for type T0, from 150 and 500 euros for T1 , from 150 to 600 euros for T2 and from 200 to 800 euros for T3+.

Responding to the opposition’s counter-proposals, Carlos Moedas said that the city of Lisbon currently has “one of the largest public programs in Europe for affordable and supported income, with an investment of €800 million by 2028.”

“For many years, the PS has failed to create a model that would allow private individuals to contribute to solving the problem,” criticized the Social Democrat.

At a meeting of the Lisbon Municipal Assembly on Tuesday, a member of the housing council said that the new model, “instead of being a concession format in accordance with the Code of Public Contracts, represents a simple sale of the area after 90 years with a property burden linked to the available income.”

Filipa Roseta said the previous executive director, chaired by the CoP, created a working group in 2015 to launch affordable housing partnership models, but “until 2021, it had not built a single public-private partnership housing.”

In this sense, the current leader decided to “redesign the model and reinvent it because objectively it did not work,” the mayor supported, noting that the new model is “much simpler from a legal point of view,” predicting that it will be “much more attractive to private persons.”

“We are also allowing rents to go up a little more than they were, they may be more equivalent to government rents rather than council rents, to help pay for the operation itself,” the housing council member pointed out.

Filipa Roseta’s proposal for an affordable housing partnership program to be implemented in the parishes of Benfica and Parque das Nações points to “rents 20% below market”, which does not convince the opposition parties, namely the PS and PCP.

It is important for PS councilors that the municipality’s response is consistent with the income limits set out in the Municipal Housing Ordinance, “retaining the principle, also in the partnership model, that the value of the income is determined, rather than based on market value, by applying a discount – only in the family’s disposable income and the applied rate of effort.”

“The model currently proposed is unacceptable in the circumstances presented, since it assumes, for example, for T1 in the Parc des Nations, an increase in the maximum rent from 500 to 900 euros, which requires a single-member household to earn more than 2,500 euros per month, so as not to go beyond the norm established at 35%,” the PS noted.

The PKP also proposed to apply the Municipal Ordinance on the Right to Housing to prevent T1 from having a “maximum value of 700 euros” and T2 from having a rent of up to 970 euros or even a residential rent. T3 travel card costs up to 1375 euros.

The communists believe that the proposal of the SDP/CDS-PP leadership to transfer municipal land under land rights promotes “a private business model that does not guarantee houses with affordable rent,” arguing that setting rents at market prices For reference, in this case 20% below market value “leads to unaffordable values ​​for a large portion of the population.”

Currently, the 17-member executive body of the Lisbon Chamber includes seven elected members of the Novos Tempos coalition (PSD/CDS-PP/MPT/PPM/Alliance), who are the only ones with assigned responsibilities – three from PS, two from PCP, three from Cidadaãos Por Lisboa (elected by the PS/Livre coalition), one from Livre and one from BE.