Everyone seems to be in agreement about keeping the response and reception of the homeless in the city center; but the Lisbon City Council seems to be struggling to have assets (municipal or Central State) available in that area and for that purpose.
A Opposition proposal to maintain a response to homelessness in the city center was approved by a majority at the town hall meeting on July 14. The text had been presented by PS, Livre, BE and Cidadãos Por Lisboa, and gathered among the councillors of these parties eight favorable votes. Enough for, with the abstention of the PCP and the PSD/CDS coalition, be approved.
Through this proposal, the opposition councillors ask the Lisbon City Council to ensure the maintenance of the support and reception services "in the city center, in the areas where people are homeless". In this sense, and in view of the unavailability of the Santa Bárbara Barracks to continue to receive a Municipal Emergency Reception Center - due to the "timing of RRP investments" and the "need" of that equipment "enter into construction work for affordable housing by the Central State" -, propose, "for two months, a process of identifying alternative hypotheses in the CML and State assets located in the central area of the city, for the installation of a definitive equipment".
PS, Livre, BE and Cidadãos Por Lisboa disagree with the idea announced by Councillor Sofia Athayde, responsible for Social Rights, to relocate the reception currently held at the Santa Bárbara Barracks to four poles in Lisbon. four social housing estates (Alfredo Bensaúde, Condado, Armador and Quinta do Ourives) and also of create a new large reception space in the former Afonso Domingues Schoolin the parish of Marvila.
In the wake of the approval of this proposal, the Lisbon City Council sent a statement to newsrooms indicating that the President Carlos Moedas "will insist with the Government" to maintain the current Municipal Emergency Reception Center at Santa Barbara Barracks. "Carlos Moedas already has a reception plan for people experiencing homelessness that improves their living conditions, with several spaces already defined. But the president of CML wants to extend this offer, including the Santa Bárbara Barracks that the Government intends to dismantle“, the municipality also indicates. The Lisbon City Council, through the Council for Social Rights, has sent "a letter to Estamo and Fundiestamo, requesting the provision of a space in the city center for a permanent facility"but received a negative response from these two entities. Therefore, "Carlos Moedas will now insist with the Government, supported by a request from the opposition in CML (including the PS and Councillor Paula Marques) for this response to be maintained in the city center.".
Meanwhile, at this week's session of the Lisbon Municipal AssemblySofia Athayde responded to MPs' concerns regarding the future of the Barracks and the response to homelessness in the city center. The Councillor responsible said that in this Reception Center there are currently 89 people, including 15 women and 74 menThe Commission also reported that between July 10 and 14, 15 new admissions were made, of which 12 joined the barracks and the other three people ended up in other reception centers.
Athayde reiterated that Estamo and Fundiestamo, two companies that manage the Central State's real estate assets, said they had no "properties in the city center for this purpose" and that, for its part, the Municipal Directorate of Asset Management (DMGP) "also reported not having municipal property to receive this response". Athayde added that the "hypothesis" to pass the Barracks Reception Center to the former grounds of the Miguel Bombarda Hospitalwhere a hotel is to be built and, as a "urban transfers"Also three plots for affordable housing, a school, a cresche and two cultural facilities. "We studied the possibility of developing the new Center within the scope of the urban transfers of the former Miguel Bombarda Hospital, but these transfers have already been definitively prioritized by the previous executive"he explained. "We also saw a palace on Rua Gomes Freire, which is also not possible because it was concessioned for the Affordable Rent Program."
Faced with the insistence of some municipal deputies, Sofia Athayde showed her hands tied and without immediate solutions in the central area; and asked the audience which affordable rent investment they wanted to be canceled first, if the Quartel, if the Miguel Bombarda, if the Rua Gomes Freire. "The Lisbon City Council has made the largest investment ever this past year, of around six million, to help homeless people. In other words, we welcomed 1043 people. It is regrettable the politicization that we are doing once again of people in homeless situations "he said. In turn, Filipa Roseta, Councillor for Housing and Municipal Works, added about the Santa Bárbara Barracks that "The urgency is not ours, it is the Government's. The Government is asking the Chamber to urgently move this Center. It is the Government who is promoting this urgency".
In any case, there seems to be a consensus among the various parties sitting in the municipal executive: whether on the side of Athayde and Moedas, or on the opposition, everyone seems to agree on maintaining the response and reception of the homeless in the city center; but the Lisbon City Council seems to be struggling to have assets (municipal or Central State) available in that area and for that purpose.
