The municipal housing director, Marta Sotto Maior, explained at a public meeting of the Lisbon City Council that officials responded as quickly as possible to an issue that arose. She admitted the problem was internal, stating, “We inadvertently pressed the draw button in the wrong environment on the Habitar Lisboa online platform.”
The incident involved the 29th PRA competition, affecting 133 homes, and occurred on June 16, right after the application deadline ended at 5 PM. Following the deadline, municipal staff had informed candidates that the draw would take place the next day.
However, while testing the platform, the draw button was “inadvertently” pressed, described Sotto Maior, indicating it was a “human error.”
According to the housing director, once the button is pressed, the draw cannot be halted, and “automatically, without any technical intervention,” the platform notifies candidates of the result.
Within a half-hour difference, officials detected the problem, and “immediately” informed the 7,362 candidates about a “technical failure,” nullifying the draw, rescheduling a new draw for June 27, and initiating an internal inquiry.
Sotto Maior assured that the draw process is “a closed box,” with “no human intervention” once the button is pressed, ensuring procedural transparency.
The Habitar Lisboa platform was developed by an external company in 2020, with an audit conducted on its encryption code and housing assignment process.
Sotto Maior reported that the team is “extremely overloaded and has already been reinforced,” as they are handling “dozens of competitions” and will launch “500 more houses for competition by the end of the year.”
The director emphasized that the 133 individuals notified of housing allocation through the canceled draw deserve an apology, “but no more than that.”
“This is an allocation, not yet a house assignment,” she clarified, explaining that once allocated, individuals must submit documents and the services must validate the information.
Sotto Maior noted that “45% of applications are rejected due to false declarations or withdrawals.”
The platform indicates that houses in the competition are “under construction,” without a ready assignment date, rejecting the notion of victims.
“Unfortunately, there are no bulletproof systems,” Sotto Maior acknowledged, highlighting ongoing efforts to strengthen the system to prevent issues, and reaffirming the draw was conducted as intended but executed “a day early,” thus failing the requirement to be a public act.
Apart from the internal inquiry starting on June 17, lasting 30 days, Housing Councilor Filipa Roseta (PSD) ordered the launch of a public procedure to hire an external entity to certify the house assignment draws.
Another measure adopted involves starting the draws for the Accessible Rent Program with the simultaneous action of “two people pressing the button instead of one,” Filipa Roseta revealed.
Housing Councilor Roseta emphasized that the 29th competition draw of the Accessible Rent Program “was immediately annulled because it wasn’t public; that’s the only reason,” and insisted the council cannot halt house assignments “as system reliability is not in question.”
Lisbon’s mayor, Carlos Moedas (PSD), reinforced “total transparency” in the housing draw, acknowledging a “technical human error,” while opposition council members, including PS, PCP, BE, and Citizens for Lisbon (elected by the PS/Livre coalition), demanded further clarifications to restore credibility in the house assignment process.
