At the last meeting of the Lisbon Municipal Housing Council, the councilor responsible for Housing, Filipa Roseta, presented the results of the public consultation on the Municipal Housing Charter. In total, around 200 ideas were presented, suggested by residents of the capital, and mainly deal with the themes of local accommodation, affordable rent, the elderly population and cooperatives.
The public consultation on the Lisbon Municipal Housing Charter took place between November 7, 2023 and February 2, 2024. In total, there were 73 individual participations and 15 participations from entities, including four parish councils and one cooperative. These participations resulted in more than two hundred ideas for the Municipal Housing Charter, with the greatest emphasis on the themes of local accommodation, affordable rental, the elderly population and cooperatives. The results were presented recently, at the last meeting of the Lisbon Municipal Housing Council.
This meeting was attended by the councilor responsible for Housing at the CML, Filipa Roseta, who highlighted that the authority’s priority, “for the next 10 years, is to ensure that public property is fully used to increase supply of affordable housing.” The mayor also addressed the need for positive discrimination measures in affordable income programs for long-term residents in parishes heavily affected by housing pressure, as well as competitions open to everyone.
Lisbon wants half of affordable housing for professionals who work or live in the city
“Positive discrimination in affordable income programs is necessary to counter the population leaving the parishes that have suffered the most housing pressure”, stated the councilor, clarifying that this was one of more than two hundred ideas presented in the public consultation for the creation of the Municipal Housing Charter. Likewise, he continued, “we will propose affordable income programs, in which 50% of the houses in competition will be destined exclusively to those who live or work in Lisbon and the remainder destined to all candidates”, Filipa Roseta in what was the seventh meeting of the Council .
In the five parishes of the historic center, which suffer the greatest housing pressure, the percentage increases to 75% for those who live or work there, added the councilor, highlighting that this response is intended to provide a solution for 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 lack of affordable housing, are forced to refuse job offers in Lisbon. “Positive discrimination in affordable income programs is necessary to counter the population leaving parishes that have suffered the most housing pressure,” she stated, clarifying that this was another of the ideas presented during the public consultation period for the Municipal Charter of
Lisbon Housing.
Meeting also defined rules for local accommodation
On the other hand, regarding the rules of local accommodation, which must be defined
In its own regulation after the approval of the Charter, the average ratio of 5% was debated as a ceiling for AL in the city, considering that it does not safeguard the balance between parishes. In the scope of Urbanism, the proposal to incorporate the delimitation of more territorial management instruments in the Charter’s maps was also accepted, such as the representation of Execution Units, Urban Plans and Urban Rehabilitation Area.
The proposal to update the list of operations planned on the map of housing potential in Lisbon was also accepted. The presentation and debate of the contents of the Municipal Housing Charter included direct participation, as well as eight public presentation and debate sessions, four of which were for clarification and the other four for participation. The basis were the themes “increasing the public supply of housing”; “reduce asymmetries in access to housing”; “increase the supply of cooperative and partnership housing” and “regenerate the forgotten city”.
Document will be put to vote and appreciation by municipal bodies
98 citizens were present at these participatory sessions, who integrated these initiatives in an interactive way and organized by groups. Other suggestions proposed were 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 dilapidated buildings in municipal neighborhoods.
These are themes that correspond to measures 1, 2, 3 and 6 of the first priority of the Municipal Charter, that is, “increasing and improving the supply of public, private and partnership housing”. Finally, and after the conclusion of the public consultation report, it will be submitted for consideration by the Chamber and the Municipal Assembly of Lisbon together with the new version of the Municipal Housing Charter, which will be made taking into account the proposals received.
