Housing: Half a hundred protested speculation in Bragança

Cerca of 50 people today showed up with posters in a rout, in Bragança, against the crisis in housing, demanding measures to combat speculation, such as social houses and affordable rents.

Miguel Gomes, one of the organizers of the protest, is 28 years old and has always lived in social housing, because his family has no income to have their own home.

The young man stressed that the lack of housing and high prices are also “problems affecting the inhabitants of the interior”, where spending on housing is the “gross” of the family budget.

“It’s not cheap” to live in Bragança, because incomes are “lower than in Porto and Lisbon,” the young man said, who showed his dissatisfaction with a problem that he said was “transversal to society”.

“ You really have to do something, because if you don’t do it there is no way to live”, he said.

Pedro Prazeres, from the movement “From Interior to Resistance”, also joined the cause. He told Lusa that he was forced to leave the house where he lived because he could not bear the rent and returned to his mother's house.

“ It was since the beginning of this year, I was alone and could not pay the rent ", said.

The young man stressed the difficulty in finding housing and at an affordable price, highlighting the reality of young workers, who “have to share house as in student times”.

“ Speaking specifically of Bragança is a very small medium where the offer of houses is almost nonexistent and is at prices, both rent and purchase, prohibitive, taking into account the reality of the interior ", said.

Pedro Prazeres argued that it is necessary to create “social housing, public housing at affordable prices”.

“ I'm a civil servant, a superior technician, and right now I can't stand paying for my house. I am a mother, single parent, with two children, and I see that I will have to sell the house, because interest rates are rising to a dimension and speculation that is impossible to have dignity ", said to Lusa, Ana Luísa Pereira, also a member of the movement.

In a more privileged situation, she said, is Sara Pereira, who bought home. Yet he joined the protests, because he sees speculation in the prices of houses in Bragança, which “are not so far away” from those of the country’s coast.

With a baby in her arms, Margarida Carmona also wanted to be present at the demonstration. He left Lisbon and returned to Bragança to form a family, where he lives at his mother's house. At the age of 38, he recognizes that if it were not so “it would have been difficult” to find housing.

The demonstration that took place, this afternoon, began with concentration in Praça Cavaleiro Ferreira, followed by a ruckus by the historic center of the city, being chanted slogans and displayed posters with phrases such as “more house to live less speculation”, “fair prices” and “public housing for all”.