Home To Live awaits crowded streets in national protest for housing

A Casa Para Viver, who called a national demonstration for this Saturday, expects the streets to be filled with people, because “a policy of fair housing will not fall from the sky”, notes Rita Silva, in the name of the platform.

“ It is very important that people remain on the street (...), will not fall from the sky a fair housing policy that allows us, everyone, to have access to housing, it will depend on our stay in the streets ", appeals to the social economist, in statements to Lusa, before representatives of the platform that brings together a hundred associations and collectives for housing be received by the President of the Republic, in the Palace of Belém.

“ We have had a very strong stay in the last month”, recognizes the activist for the right to housing, stressing that “being on the street has been worth it”, because at this time “everything is talking about housing” and the subject is “at the centre of political debate”.

However, “it is not yet enough”, points out, anticipating: “If we continue we will have some results.”

To this end, “it is fitting” that the subject of housing “do not go out, that it is not simply fleeting, since the problem exists, it continues to exist and we do not see that there have been effective changes on the part of the government”.

Dozens of localities have already joined the Saturday protest, showing that the housing crisis “is not just a problem of Lisbon and Porto”, but has an impact at national level.

“ Nowadays, governments hardly listen to people if they do not remain in the struggle and if they do not remain mobilized,” he says, believing that “many people” will join the Saturday demonstration, despite less favorable weather forecasts.

The government thinks that it is “doing everything well” and will “continue the same way”, not having given “shows” that it will change its policies, analyzes Rita Silva, considering that “it would be a sign of listening (...) very important” that “let go down” the new law of urban lease, “that will further precarize people’s lives”.

Still, that decision would not be enough. “It is not only a single proposal that solves the housing problem, it is a set of proposals that, in an articulated way, manage to solve the housing problem,” says Casa Para Viver, countering more regulation to the incentives adopted by the government.

“Regulation of rents and the value of rents, regulation of contracts (...), regulation of empty houses (...), regulation that favors the social function of housing to the detriment of speculation and the function of housing as investment and as financial asset, regulation of evictions, there can be no evictions without dignified and appropriate solutions, (...) also regulate the local accommodation, which transforms housing into hotel units, in tourist units”, lists Rita Silva.

Asked about the possible marking of a general strike focused on the housing crisis, like what happened two days ago in Spain, Rita Silva says that Casa Para Viver has “full awareness” that such an initiative takes time to prepare and has to go through a process with the working people.

“We do not think that a strike in Portugal had to be marked according to the agenda in Spain,” he says, pointing out that there is “an international, trade union articulation that opposes the increase in the cost of living, the increase in housing prices and that demands living conditions for people”.

In Portugal, he points out, “there has been not only solidarity on the part of the unions with the struggle for housing”, but even “an articulation”, for example with CGTP-IN.

This morning, at 10:00, the President of the Republic, António José Seguro, will receive representatives of the House for Living and the Camps of Lisbon and Porto.