“The IHRU is a public entity that has been underfunded over the years, both in human resources and financial means, precisely to become unable to address housing issues,” stated Diana Ferreira today, though she criticized the performance of the public entity promoting national housing policy.
For the former deputy to the Assembly of the Republic, “the scale of the housing problem in the city of Porto cannot be solved solely by the hands of the city council, far from it,” and thus she calls for increased state responsibility.
“The government has the responsibility to allocate, even from a budgetary perspective, funds to ensure housing construction. Throughout the country, and naturally also for the city of Porto, it has this responsibility from a political standpoint. Naturally, there are community funds that should be utilized,” she argued.
During a walk in the Campanhã parish through the neighborhoods of São Vicente de Paulo, Monte da Bela, and Falcão, the CDU candidate demanded “more public housing within a supported rent regime” to immediately address the 3,000 families from Porto identified in the Municipal Housing Charter as being in an emergency situation, as well as public housing “with truly affordable rents.”
In the grounds of Monte da Bela, where the municipality launched a public tender for housing construction that yielded no results, Diana Ferreira said it is proof that “the public-private partnership approach is not at all a solution to ensure more public housing.”
In that area, between 2005 and 2008 during Rui Rio’s second term, part of the São Vicente de Paulo neighborhood houses were demolished. Diana Ferreira believes that public housing should be rebuilt there and that the residents “who were expelled and dispersed among different neighborhoods” have the “right to return.”
“We advocate the same, for example, for the Aleixo area, where residents were also expelled from that area, and while not an easy solution, we also believe that public housing should be guaranteed there and that former residents should also be able to return,” she added.
The candidates for Porto City Council include Manuel Pizarro (PS), Diana Ferreira (CDU – PCP/PEV coalition), Nuno Cardoso (Porto Primeiro – NC/PPM coalition), Pedro Duarte (PSD/CDS-PP/IL coalition), Sérgio Aires (BE), the current vice-president Filipe Araújo (Fazer à Porto – independent), Guilherme Alexandre Jorge (Volt), Hélder Sousa (Livre), Miguel Corte-Real (Chega), Frederico Duarte Carvalho (ADN), Maria Amélia Costa (PTP), and Luís Tinoco Azevedo (PLS).
The current executive is formed by a majority of six elected members from Rui Moreira’s movement and one independent councilor, with the remaining seats held by two elected members from the PS, two from the PSD, one from the CDU, and one from the BE.
The local elections will take place on October 12.
