"We will propose affordable rent programs in which 50% of the homes in competition will be exclusively intended for those who live or work in Lisbon and the remaining ones for all candidates", said Filipa Roseta, quoted in a statement released today by the city council.

The proposal was announced as part of the presentation of the results of the public consultation of the Lisbon 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 Councilor also suggested that in the five parishes of 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 formalized, is intended to "provide a solution for many who are forced to leave the city and for displaced professionals in essential professions, such as nurses, teachers and police officers", who, due to lack of affordable housing, are "forced" to reject job offers in Lisbon.

"Positive discrimination in affordable rent programs is necessary to counteract the outflow of population from the parishes that have suffered the most from housing pressure", said the councilor.

This proposal is one of the "more than 200 ideas" presented during the public consultation period of the Lisbon Municipal Housing Charter, which ran from November 7, 2023 to February 2, 2024.

According to the Lisbon city council, the public consultation received 73 individual contributions and 15 contributions from entities, including four parish councils and a cooperative, and the topics with "greatest prominence" were local lodging (AL), affordable rent, elderly population and cooperatives.

In this context, the person responsible for the Housing portfolio 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 their own regulation after the approval of the Lisbon Municipal Housing Charter, the Council participants discussed the average ratio of 5% as a ceiling for AL in the city, considering that it does not safeguard the balance between parishes.

In urban planning terms, the proposal to incorporate the delimitation of more territorial management instruments into the Charter maps was made viable, namely the representation of Execution Units, Urban Plans and Urban Rehabilitation Area, and to update the list of operations provided for in the map of housing potential in Lisbon.

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

These themes are part of the first priority of the document - "Increase and improve the supply of public, private and partnership housing".

According to the city council, under the leadership of PSD/CDS-PP, which governs without an absolute majority, the public consultation report is being concluded to be submitted to the appreciation of the executive and the municipal assembly, together with the new version of the Municipal Housing Charter resulting from the inclusion of the proposals accepted.

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