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Lisbon: Elderly and sick trapped at home due to failures of the municipal company

“This is only killing us slowly. No one does anything, everyone ignores the situation.” Vera thus denounces her situation of being without an elevator for two months, in a building managed by Gebalis, the public company responsible for the management of municipal housing properties in Lisbon.

After several complaints to the company without resolution or response, Vera decided to post about the situation on the Portal da Queixa.

In her building, located in Ameixoeira, the majority of residents are elderly and have health issues. Two residents live with oxygen machines, and another underwent heart surgery. However, this does not prompt Gebalis to send the company responsible for elevator maintenance.

Vera is not the only one facing elevator issues in properties under Gebalis’s responsibility. A quick search on the Portal da Queixa reveals that the complaint is common across several neighborhoods in the capital. In September, Carlos, living in Alta de Lisboa, reported not having an elevator for a year.

“We call Gebalis, and they say they will fix it, but it’s a lie,” he emphasized, noting that his building has bedridden people who need treatments and cannot leave home, as well as people in wheelchairs who cannot use the stairs.

In a different street of the same area, Fernando, who uses a wheelchair, reported at the end of August that the elevator in his building had been out for a month, worsening his health condition as it forced him to miss several physiotherapy sessions.

The elevator saga extends to broken doors (open to homeless people).

To Notícias ao Minuto, Joana, a fictitious name, reported also being without an elevator for two months, in a property located in the parish of Olivais, where several elderly, children, and even a person requiring a wheelchair reside. Although not a tenant of Gebalis, she lives in a building where the municipal company owns many apartments and is responsible for property maintenance.

Besides several emails sent — accessed by Notícias ao Minuto — Joana has called Gebalis numerous times. The response remains the same: the matter is under “analysis.”

Joana is “fed up” with issues regarding the municipal partnership in question. Since 2021, she has been complaining and ‘wasting time’ trying to resolve issues under Gebalis’s purview, which to date, has not formed a condominium yet fails to ensure residents’ minimal safety conditions.

The elevator is not the only problem. The building’s entrance door has “again” a “lock malfunction,” something also seen in other municipal properties.

According to the businesswoman, this is a recurring situation that “compromises the safety of the building and its inhabitants.”

Joana holds proof. It is the fourth time she reports these occurrences to Gebalis over several years, and in 2022, the malfunction led a homeless person to spend the night in the building’s basement, using it as a restroom.

“The smell was unbearable. An untenable situation due to lack of security and hygiene. It became a public health issue. As Gebalis did not resolve it, we had to call the police,” she revealed, displaying photos from that time showing a person sleeping on the floor surrounded by trash.

Faced with these cases, Joana questions: “What are they waiting for to resolve these situations? These elevator problems, for instance? Do they want a repeat of what happened the other day?”

Severely injured after falling into elevator shaft

The businesswoman refers to an accident on September 11 in São Domingos de Benfica, precisely in a municipal building managed by Gebalis, which left a 38-year-old man critically injured.

According to the PSP, the victim was on the seventh floor when activating the elevator. The door opened, and the man entered, not realizing the elevator cabin had not arrived at the floor. Only the neighbors’ intervention, who heard the victim’s screams, prevented a larger tragedy: the elevator cabin falling on him.

Notícias ao Minuto tried to ascertain the man’s health status a week after the incident but obtained no information.

At the accident time, Gebalis assured that the case was under investigation and that the involved elevator had been subjected to required maintenance and inspections.

Older residents ‘hostage’ to Gebalis’s inaction

The day before the São Domingos de Benfica accident, AbrilAbril reported that the four support elevators for circulation and mobility in buildings 554, 555, and 556, in Bairro do Condado, Marvila, Lisbon, had been “out for over three months, plaguing residents’ lives.”

The complaint was made by the Marvila Residents and Users Committee, highlighting the situation of two seventh-floor neighbors, one 94 and the other 75 (who “requires oxygen support and has severe health limitations”), both unable to leave their homes without third-party assistance.

But it’s not an isolated case. Gebalis has long been accused of inaction amid persistent issues with municipal property elevators.

In May, Correio da Manhã reported problems in Alta de Lisboa, and in 2024, SIC Notícias reported on a man who lost both legs, who has been housebound and missing medical and physiotherapy appointments for two months due to a building elevator malfunction.

Orona no longer contracts with Gebalis.

Notícias ao Minuto learned that at least one company previously responsible for elevator maintenance for Gebalis, Orona, no longer has a contract with the municipal company since early September.

Notícias ao Minuto contacted councilor Filipa Roseta’s office, responsible for Housing and Municipal Works of the municipality, which referred inquiries to Gebalis.

Gebalis blames “vandalization” and “years of insufficient maintenance.”

In response to Notícias ao Minuto, Gebalis attributes the elevator maintenance issues to “years of insufficient maintenance” and “repeated vandalization of the elevators.”

According to the municipal company, “efforts” are underway “to resolve elevator failures and modernize them.”

Gebalis assures it “recognizes the issue’s urgency” and is making “enormous efforts to expedite resolving these situations.” However, it emphasizes a “challenging context.”

“Years of insufficient maintenance or failure to replace obsolete equipment, a legacy Gebalis has been trying to reverse with sustained and planned efforts. This situation led to urgencies in repairing multiple equipment, instead of regular and scheduled maintenance,” the municipal company explains, adding it has “significantly” increased investment in this area.

“Between 2018 and 2021, 6.8 million euros were invested in this equipment; from 2022 to 2025, the investment will reach at least 13.5 million euros. This value represents almost a 100% increase and demonstrates unprecedented investment in modernizing and repairing municipal elevators,” it reveals.

However, repairing broken equipment, particularly in public infrastructures, requires, as the mentioned company remembers, “a rigorous administrative process due to the public procurement mechanisms Gebalis is legally bound to,” which does not always “allow responses within ideal times that everyone desires.”

“This problem is compounded, in too many cases, by repeated elevator vandalization, causing significant damage and service interruptions in various neighborhoods, weakening daily utilization,” it states.

In response, Gebalis devised a “strategy” based on “three fundamental axes”: “structured maintenance, scheduled repairs, and accelerated modernization.”

“The primary goal is to ensure more reliability, reduce breakdowns, and consequently improve the service quality provided to populations,” the company assures Notícias ao Minuto, something not yet reflecting residents’ opinions in municipal buildings.

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