“We will propose affordable income programs in which 50% of the houses in the competition are destined exclusively for those who live or work in Lisbon and the remainder are destined for all other candidates”, said Filipa Roseta.

The proposal was announced as part of the presentation of the results of the public consultation on the Municipal Housing Charter at the 7th meeting of the Lisbon Municipal Housing Council, which took place on Friday, with the participation of several local entities, including parish councils and residents' associations.

The Housing councillor also suggested that in the five parishes in the historic center - Arroios, Santo António, Misericórdia, Santa Maria Maior and São Vicente -, which suffer the greatest housing pressure, “the percentage increases to 75% for those who live or work there”.

Filipa Roseta explained that this proposal, which has yet to be formalised, is intended to “provide a solution to many who are forced to leave the city and to professionals displaced from essential professions, such as nurses, teachers and police officers”, who, due to a lack of affordable housing, are “forced” to refuse job offers in Lisbon.

“Positive discrimination in affordable income programs is necessary to counteract the outflow of population from parishes that have suffered the most housing pressure”, declared the councillor.

This proposal is one of “more than 200 ideas” presented during the public consultation period for the Lisbon Municipal Housing Charter, which took place between November 7, 2023 and February 2, 2024.

According to the Lisbon municipality, the public consultation received 73 individual participations and 15 participations from entities, including four parish councils and a cooperative, and the “most prominent” topics were local accommodation (AL), affordable rental, and the elderly population.

In this context, the person responsible for Housing in Lisbon said that the priority for the next 10 years is to ensure that all public property is in use, in the service of increasing the supply of affordable housing.

Regarding the AL rules, which should be defined in a specific regulation after the approval of the Lisbon Municipal Housing Charter, Council participants discussed the average ratio of 5% as a ceiling for AL in the city, considering that it does not safeguard the balances between parishes.

In addition to direct participation in the public consultation, eight public sessions were held to present and debate the contents of the Charter, in which participants received greater attention from the rehabilitation of vacant municipal housing, the construction of residential buildings on municipal land, the rehabilitation, reconstruction and conversion of municipal buildings for housing use and the rehabilitation of degraded buildings in municipal neighbourhoods.