Portugal is facing the biggest housing crisis the country has ever experienced. While finding a house was not easy before, right now it is way worse and on a point that we can call “perfect storm”.
Costs of housing are sky rising and this leads to an extreme pressure on people who can’t afford to pay their current houses or move to another one. While the minimum wage is 760€/month and the allowance to Disabled People is 298,4€/month, the average cost of a house is over 1000€/month, for renting. These costs have been escalating for several years, but they have increased 39% since 2019, while the salaries only raised 9%. Both issues combined, along with the rise of cost of living, tourism and digital nomads, made this crisis grow exponentially.
Although the problem affects everyone, Disabled People are one of the groups that face disproportional access to housing. There are only a few accessible houses, which represents an example of the discrimination we experience every day. According to 2021 Census, over 68% of people with physical limitations live in an inaccessible house and over 64% of the general population live in an inaccessible house.
All over Europe, there were a week of coordinated actions, called Housing Action Days, from 25th March to 2nd April, to fight for the right to housing, the right to the city, and to alert for the rising living costs. Portugal became part of the movement and mobilised to join the protest on Saturday 1st April, in many different cities. Over 150 collectives, organisations and movements occupied the public space and stood united for housing justice.
Centre for Independent Living joined the organisation of the protest and took the streets in Lisbon and Coimbra. Lisbon organised a big March, from Alameda to Rossio, with thousands of protesters from many social movements. In Coimbra, there was a concentration, with a playlist of interventive music and speeches of representatives from different collectives. We were invited to read our specific demands concerning the access to housing for Disabled People.
- Financing program for adaptation and elimination architectural barriers in houses
- Public and cost controlled housing, with a reserved amount of accessible houses for Disabled People
- Efficient control of the law of accessibility, to prevent constructions that violate these requirements
- Social housing, or with cost control, as a tool for territorial planning and social inclusion
- Accessibility and security as basic criteria for housing access, in articulation with a coordinated and progressing plan of deinstitutionalisation
It is mandatory that Disabled People‘s movement is represented in every action that fight for civil and human rights. Although we have specific needs, our demand is just the same as someone else: to be independent, to live with dignity and joy, and to have a word when the subject is our life. Nothing about us without us!
Article written by Catarina Vitorino and Diogo Martins
