Câmara wants affordable income raffles only for those who live in Lisbon or recently left | Lisbon Chamber
Anyone interested in living in Lisbon who has assessed average can apply for a house in the Affordable Income Program (PRA). You don’t need to live in the city, in the metropolitan area or even in the country – you are eligible as long as you are of legal age and earn a maximum of 35 thousand to 45 thousand euros annually (depending on the number of people in the household).
That situation may be about to change. The councilor of Habitação de Lisboa takes a proposal to the next council meeting so that future affordable income competitions are exclusive to current inhabitants of the city and to those who have lived in it at some point in the last ten years.
“If we look at the data from the last two competitions, we see a huge disproportion between the number of applications and the number of houses, but also between candidates who lived in Lisbon and those who did not,” says Filipa Roseta to PÚBLICO.
In the 8th PRA draw, held in October, there were 5496 candidates – of which 3189 were already resident in Lisbon. In all, 128 houses were assigned: 72 to city dwellers, 56 to inhabitants of other municipalities. In the 9th draw, in November, 1549 applications from residents were registered (2684 in total) and 19 of the 32 houses in the competition were given to current residents.
For Filipa Roseta, this doesn’t make sense. “We want to first fix and then attract”, says the councilor, explaining that the current rules can create a perverse effect of aggravating the housing problem for those who already live in Lisbon – leading people to seek alternatives abroad. “While the disproportion is so great, we must give priority to those who live in Lisbon”, he argues.
The Municipal Housing Rights Regulation was approved in 2019 and harmonized the rules for the different municipal programs in this area. However, says Filipa Roseta, while in the cases of supported rent and the municipal subsidy for renting “people have to live in Lisbon” to be able to apply, this does not happen for affordable rent. “This is the only one that is open to the whole country or even people living abroad. This is incongruous. ”
The regulation provides that the chamber is free to create “specific, preferential or positive discrimination requirements” in affordable income competitions, but none of the examples mentioned in the article concerns the geographical origin of the candidates, referring instead to other characteristics: large families, single persons , people with disabilities or research fellows.
If the proposal is approved, this will be the first time that the municipality activates this article and creates an access condition. “Our idea is to help people who are in Lisbon to stay here. Families need this sign”, says the councilor.
In a non-executive council minority, Carlos Moedas’ team is dependent on the favorable vote of at least two councilors from the left to make the idea avenge. But Filipa Roseta, who admits that she doesn’t know how to position herself in this matter, believes that the calculator will not be needed. “This should be unanimous, it seems absolutely logical.”
The proposal is available for discussion at the first public meeting of this term, next Friday.