CDU/Porto criticizes statements by Pedro Duarte after action in the Viaduct of Grijó

“ A CDU Porto City expresses deep concern about the intervention held on Thursday, September 24, in the Viaduct of Grijó, in Lordelo do Ouro, and, above all, with Pedro Duarte's statements that accompanied it ", reads a note today sent to journalists.

The operation, which involved PSP, Municipal Police and other municipal services, came accompanied by statements from the mayor, elected by the PSD-CDS-IL coalition, saying that it will be “impractical” with the situation of public space and insecurity, reminding the recent opening of the new Municipal Center of Pernoita.

“ Those who sleep under a viaduct are not there because they chose to degrade public space. It is there because, in a city where the dwelling is increasingly inaccessible, there is no home to go to. Turning poverty, dependence, disease, social exclusion and the absence of housing into a problem of police, security and cleaning up the public space does not solve any of these situations. It only removes its victims from sight”, criticizes the CDU.

For that political force, the overnight center “may be a necessary response to emergency situations”, but “a bed for one night is not a house”, so “it is not acceptable for the mayor to turn” this answer into an argument “to say that he has already offered everything”.

“ Giving a bed for a few hours of the night is very different from ensuring housing, stability, health monitoring, treatment of dependencies when needed, income, employment and conditions to rebuild a life project. It is particularly serious that the mayor uses expressions such as ‘we will be relentless’ when he talks about some of the most vulnerable people in the city,” the statement continues.

The CDU, which will ask the Porto Municipal Assembly for clarification on the intervention, as well as information about the Pernoita Municipal Center, leaves a question to the Porto City Hall: “Do you want to remove people from the homeless situation or just take homeless people out of public space?”.

“Poverty is not swept away, it is fought. ... What we do not accept is that poverty is a threat to the city, nor do we accept the widespread association between homeless people and insecurity. We do not accept a policy of successive displacement of people between streets, viaducts and other spaces, leaving intact the reasons why they continue without housing ", criticize.

On Thursday, the House of Porto cleaned and closed the Viaduct of Grijó, where about 30 to 40 people living in a homeless situation who, according to Pedro Duarte, can now sleep in the center of overnight that opened about a week ago.

“ We do not accept that in the city it becomes normal for people to live on the street, that is not acceptable, it is not admissible ", said the mayor, Pedro Duarte, in statements to journalists in the Viaduct of Grijó.

For this reason, Pedro Duarte recalled that last week he opened an overnight centre with capacity for 120 people in homeless situations where they have access to a bed, clothes, locker rooms, locker rooms and breakfast and where they can also take pets.

“We have the conditions for these people to have a roof to sleep”, he stressed.

Pedro Duarte stressed that the local authority is trying to find new answers for these people and then testing new solutions, such as the overnight centre.

“ We're offering everything. From the moment we are offering everything, we also have an obligation to demand that these people do not contribute to the degradation of the public space and to the insecurity in the city and, therefore, there we will be implacable ", pointed out.