The ‘collaborative and community housing’ residential response already has 22 approved projects, in an investment of 22 million euros that foresees the creation of more than 750 places, the Government announced today.
“We already have 22 projects approved, with PRR [Recovery and Resilience Plan] funding, for the creation of innovative collaborative housing responses and integration communities, as a result of the need to create new housing and integration solutions for the most vulnerable people,” said Ana Mendes Godinho, Minister of Labor, Solidarity and Social Security, quoted in a press release.
The conditions for setting up, organizing and operating community collaborative housing, published today in the Diário da República, state that these units will be able to accommodate a minimum of four and a maximum of 60 residents.
According to the Ministry of Labor, Solidarity and Social Security’s ordinance, which will come into force on Tuesday, this model – based on cohabitation, with independent housing units (apartments and/or villas) and common and shared areas that allow for living together – can be managed by private social solidarity institutions (IPSS), or those legally equivalent, and private entities that carry out social support activities.
In the press release, the Ministry of Labor, Solidarity and Social Security also pointed out that within the scope of the tender for the requalification and expansion of the network of innovative social facilities and responses, financed by the PRR, “dozens of applications were submitted, based on a perspective of inclusion and combating isolation, of people in situations of social vulnerability”.
As far as location is concerned, the ordinance states that they should preferably be located in residential areas in the community and “have, whenever possible, easy access” for people and vehicles and proximity to the public transport network. It must be ensured that there are no “physical barriers that make it difficult or impossible to circulate on the surrounding public roads and access the residence”.
These units can operate in autonomous buildings or in parts of buildings used for other purposes, “as long as they are compatible with the operation and organization of the response,” the ordinance details, and also stipulates that “the number of studio-type housing units cannot correspond to more than 20% of the total.”
This type of housing covers various recipients already provided for in the social response, such as the elderly (as part of the national plan for active ageing), children and young people, people with disabilities and people with mental or psychiatric illnesses, as well as “other recipients, subject to specific assessment”.
In addition to accommodation, this housing response must include “a set of support services, appropriate to the individual, family and social profile of the residents”, translated, for example, into psychosocial support and cultural, recreational and activities that stimulate physical and mental autonomy.
The ordinance establishes the obligations of management entities and the rights and duties of residents, as well as the conditions for admission.
Community collaborative housing units will have to have a technical director, “ensured by a technician with higher education in social and behavioral sciences, social work or health, preferably with professional experience or specific training in the area of social support for the population covered”, as well as a technical team, with “a flexible number of professionals”, but “with adequate training and defined according to the number, profile and needs of the residents”.
The ministry has made it a priority to expand the response capacity of the network of social support facilities and services and it is in this context that it justifies encouraging “innovative social residential responses based on a collaborative and community housing model”, the main objective of which is communal living, through a balance between individual privacy and collective space.
