In Bairro Branco, Lisbon, there is no bench to sit on.

Rehousing changed its name to Bairro Municipal Carlos Botelho, but this area of ​​Lisbon remains Bairro Branco for those who live there, where buildings are made of shacks but there is no bench to sit on.

Joao Rocha is 63 years old and has lived in the neighborhood for 23 years, long enough to recognize the need to demolish the shacks and the positive aspect of having a “small house” today.

It turns out that people do not just live in apartments, and Joao enjoys walking, accompanied by his old companion “pit bull”, who gives him a slice of ham every day. “People want to go to a cafe or want to sit at the foot of a building, no [onde]. There is no cafe here, no bench to sit on,” he laments.

Moreover, João knows that there is more space for the community in “other areas”. “We feel very depressed,” he says.

A few meters below, three small children are racing their tricycles down the street, repeating the action over and over. “[Também] children have nothing to play with, they play on the roads, a car passes, a ball passes, it hits the car,” he says.

The population has long been asking for a football field for the area located in the parish of Beato. Yuri Ramos, 18, is confident that this place will take young people off the streets.

“There are several closed stores that are useless. (…) We are tired of fighting to open space for young people,” he notes.

The Viver Melhor No Beato Residents Association is the only place to socialize in the area with no open shops or spaces that could be called green.

Created in 2011 mainly to serve the elderly population, it also accepts youth and children. “Everything is at the same time, everything is mixed up, it’s a bit complicated,” suggests Yuri, one of the mural artists who wanted to “color” Bair Branque and who keeps the memory of the space before the intervention of the Special Resettlement. A program (PER) created 30 years ago to destroy tents in the metropolitan areas of Lisbon and Porto.

There is a “good atmosphere” in this area, Yuri emphasizes, who feels “abandoned” by the state, which “does not exist” here. “The only thing they did right was to open space for the elderly, that’s all,” he notes.

“We don’t have the capacity to do more,” admits Filipa Valente, a volunteer from the residents’ association, recalling that there was once a football field here – behind a kindergarten that had been closed for over a year – that was demolished to make way for a parking lot.

Commercial space in the buildings has never been allocated for either cafes or shops. They are closed or busy: there are residents who collect them for storage in order to prevent their use for other purposes. One of the garages – with a door to the driveway to the area – serves as a haven for drug addicts.

Filipa lived in Casal do Pinto when she was transferred there, and remembers that the condominium meetings originally met there to discuss problems in the area and the upkeep of the buildings. “It has been a very long time since these meetings stopped,” he laments.

“We, the residents, feel that this area is completely abandoned,” he confirms. In addition, the “essence” of the community was lost. “Every man for himself, and God for all,” he shares.

Amandine Bouillet, coordinator of the residents’ association, is not affected by this mood. On the streets it is recognized by everyone who greets and listens, registers complaints and repairs and undertakes to respond. As possible, of course.

Gebalis, the company in charge of public housing management, “has not always been a very active partner”, even when the area was included in the city council’s BIP/ZIP program for priority intervention areas.

“For a long time, Gebalis did not walk around the neighborhood, under various pretexts. Oh, we can’t, we’ll be leaving soon, it’s not safe for us, we’ll be going one day…” says Amandine, confessing that the approach “wasn’t easy” and that he felt “lack of will”.

Over the past three years, the association has bombarded Gebalis with questions and requests on behalf of the residents, thereby providing a “different level of response.”

Approximately 1,500 residents living in the neighborhood call the association “the citizen’s shop because it has everything and more.”

The fact that the association is asking for answers “changed the situation a little”, although the result is still not very noticeable and continues to be “very difficult” with the municipal government. But today, Viver Melhor No Beato is “almost a mini-office of proximity to Gebalis,” Amandine sneers.

But they recently won a spot in a municipal program that will allow them to renovate lots, solve some building problems, and restore condominium builds. “I am sure that this area was not among the areas selected for this program,” suggests Amandine.

There is a whole story that justifies distrust. “The work was entrusted to Gebalis, the city council of Lisbon. (…) For more than 20 years of the region’s existence, restoration work has practically not been carried out (…). We still have fiber. cement roofs in the area,” denounces Nuno Santos, president of the residents association, noting that “the whole building is in a very bad state.”

When the Lisbon municipality began preparations for PER’s 30th anniversary celebration “about a year ago”, it contacted the association to listen to residents and urgently ask for proposals.

The association did this by sending “various proposals” – paint three buildings “graffiti” full-length, build a football field and a multi-sports ground, create games for children, because “there is nothing at the moment.”

In December there was a new meeting, with “a few promises”, but since then “zero”. They asked for updates every week, and a few days ago the municipality replied that “it is looking into” whether the proposals are funded more by other projects. Amandine resents the evidence of incompetence and points to the residents’ “demotivation” in the face of “expectations”. And he guarantees that the microdistrict “will not let the City Council go until there is an answer.”

In the meantime, João will continue the excursions organized by the association to the hometowns of the residents of the area, who never returned there and have not seen their relatives for years. And bingo will continue to entertain old people, in the hope that someday the neighbors will be lucky.