Housing: Minister considers unfortunate statements by the President of the IHRU

O minister of Infrastructure and Housing, Miguel Pinto Luz, considered unhappy the statements of the president of the Institute of Housing and Urban Rehabilitation (IHRU) on young people and the housing problem and said he already asked for explanations.

In an interview with the National TVI Journal on Thursday night, Pinto Luz reacted to the statements of the president of the IHRU, Benjamin Pereira, who criticized the sacrifice capacity of young people, recalling that previous generations emigrated to have housing.

“ I am from a generation that I like little to be told in my time is that it was”, said Pinto Luz, added: “I do not see myself in these statements.

The minister refused to withdraw political confidence “in direct” on television, but said he had already asked IHRU for explanations.

In a session on the proposal of the Municipal Master Plan of Gaia, on Thursday, Benjamin Pereira said he did not know if the current society is available for the sacrifice level of the previous one, recalling that the grandparents themselves and the father emigrated to have a home.

“I’m just saying that my grandparents emigrated to Brazil and Argentina so they could have a home. My father emigrated for 20 years, sacrificed his life ", said the person responsible for the IHRU.

Speaking about the housing demonstrations that have occurred mainly in Porto and Lisbon, and asked whether the current generation is having less sacrifice than the previous generation, the president of the institute said he did not want to go “that way”.

In view of journalists’ questions about whether young people should also emigrate, he insisted that he was not “saying that”.

Asking to “complete reasoning”, Benjamin Pereira said that his family emigrated “because the house was effectively a very important thing for his life, his logistics base, as it is today.”.

“There needs to be a commitment from everyone. Look, young people can organize themselves, make cooperatives. I have already received people in the IHRU who now, with their 60s and 70s, who when they were the age of the young people who are now demonstrating organized themselves, made cooperatives and made their own houses”, he said.