The mayor of Lisbon today demanded that the government “speed up enormously” the response to municipal housing projects applying for European funding through the Recovery and Resilience Plan (PRR), an investment of 540 million euros.
“We submitted 540 million [euros in projects] to the IHRU (Housing and Urban Rehabilitation Institute) for the housing we’re building in Lisbon, money from the so-called PRR […]. So far we haven’t had these applications approved. We only have around 200 million approved at the moment,” said Carlos Moedas (PSD), calling on the current government (PSD/CDS-PP) to intervene, a request he had already made to the previous national executive led by the PS.
The Lisbon mayor was speaking on the sidelines of a visit to lot 10 of the Armed Forces Allotment, in Entrecampos, where another 68 homes are being built – 15 studio, 23 one-bedroom and 30 two-bedroom – to be made available under the Affordable Rent Program, in an investment of 10 million euros.
The contract for lot 10 was started during the current mayoral term, in January this year, and joins the work on lot 7, which started in April 2023, for the construction of 152 homes. These are two of the five blocks planned by the municipality for this area of the city, in Entrecampos, which in total provides for 476 homes, as well as the creation of green spaces, nearby shops and family support facilities, in an overall investment of 60 million euros.
Designed by the previous municipal executive, under the PS presidency, the Armed Forces Allotment has 256 houses already built and inhabited, with the remaining 220 under construction and expected to be completed by the end of this year, indicating that the average affordable rent is 300 euros, which corresponds to 1/3 of the income for those earning 1,000 euros.
“Lisbon really has to be for everyone and we have to have the dignity of having a home in Lisbon for everyone, that’s what we’re fighting every day to build,” stressed the PSD mayor.
Speaking to journalists, the mayor of Lisbon called the accusation that he is appropriating works launched during his previous term “unacceptable”.
“We have delivered more than 1,740 keys this term, […] which represents a lot for the city, because in the last 14 years [of PS governance] little has been done in terms of construction and rehabilitation,” said Carlos Moedas, also highlighting the municipal support for the payment of rents, a measure that benefits 1,000 families.
“I will never say in the future, when someone else is mayor of Lisbon, that that work was mine or someone else’s. It’s Lisbon,” he said. The work belongs to Lisbon,” said the Social Democrat.
The mayor pointed out that the current executive has already rehabilitated 700 of the 2,000 vacant dwellings on the municipal estate and is launching five housing cooperatives, “which was a typical idea, for example, of the Portuguese Communist Party”: “I have nothing against the ideas of other parties. If they’re good, we should go ahead.”
Regarding what he plans to build during his mandate, Carlos Moedas refused to make “vague promises”, but said that the pace of housing deliveries is 30 keys every 15 days: “I don’t like to inaugurate dreams. I inaugurate when it’s done.
Regarding projects to be implemented in the future, the Social Democrat asked the government for “a huge acceleration” in responding to the municipality’s requests for funding for housing under the PRR, in the order of 540 million euros out of the 560 million signed by Lisbon City Council with the European Union.
“We need the IHRU to approve it quickly, because if we don’t move forward quickly, then we could lose that European money and, by losing that European money, we’ll have a big problem,” warned Carlos Moedas, arguing that the opportunity of the PRR should not be missed.
