Can a parish council create affordable housing? Benfica says yes

The task of building and rehabilitating properties to increase the supply of affordable housing has been the responsibility of the central government and local councils. But can parish councils also play an active role in this? The Benfica parish council believes that it can, which is why it has an unprecedented national plan to provide at least 133 affordable housing apartments by 2025.

The Benfica parish council is working on this operation together with the government, through the Institute for Housing and Urban Rehabilitation (IHRU), and the Lisbon City Council. "The government is financing the operation under the PRR and we are going to comply with the municipal strategy, which means that the families who will come here will be families referred by the council. So, in practice, we are cooperating, there are three entities working to overcome this crisis more quickly"explains the President of the Junta, Ricardo Marques (PS). "So the council owns the apartments, but it's up to the council to select the tenants, according to the usual rules and criteria of the Affordable Rent competitions."

The 133 apartments promised are "of different types" and are already "uploaded to IHRU for analysis"This represents a total investment of 29 million euros - supported by the Junta with money from the PRR. Of these 133, there are "two buildings have already been approved and contracted for a total of 19 apartments". One of these buildings is in Cláudio Nunes Streetin the heart of Benfica; it is a building that is now vacant, serving only the restaurant The Traditional. and which the Junta bought for 3.5 million euros to provide 13 homes, ranging from studio to two-bedroom units. "This is the only vacant building we've bought so far. Let's hope - I'm going to be ambitious - that between January and a year from now we'll have 13 families living here. That's the construction time, 12 months."

The other is in the Calhariz VelhoIt's right above the train station and right next to the plot of land where the Benfica council is building a university residence (we'll go there soon). "It's a blue building, very beautiful, next to Zé Pinto's restaurant"says Ricardo. The property was bought by the Junta for 1.5 million euros from a family and will be adapted to have six dwellings, between one and two bedrooms, for affordable rents for the middle class.

These two buildings will be renovated, but others will be built from scratch. On Estrada A-da-Maia, on two vacant plots of land, a total of 34 one and two bedroom apartments will be built, and at the back of Avenida Gomes Pereira, 17 one, two and three bedroom apartments will be built on a plot of land. "What we've been doing is buying scattered apartments and looking for plots of land where we can maximize the construction of houses"says the mayor.

For now, the promise focuses on 133 houses - these are the ones that the Junta already has in IHRU to be financed - but "the goal is at least 150 apartments, rising to 250". "At the moment, we have 13 apartments scattered around the parish and last week we closed negotiations for 14 more"; and more: thanks to "two very large operations that have arisen in the meantime as opportunities - one that needs the approval of the City Council and the other that we are negotiating with private parties - we can scale up the response for the 350 apartments“.

The numbers are many, but to get to this point - that is, for a parish council to be able to produce housing stock for affordable rent - it was necessary to tinker with the administrative framework for this type of policy. First, at the government level, enabling the councils to be agents for construction and rehabilitation under the 1st Right program; then, with Lisbon City Council, to allow the councils to also be executors of the municipal housing strategy. Ricardo is convinced that the joints can "making a difference with a public housing policy that is close to home and can be implemented quickly"not only because they are more local structures. "The municipal budget calls for 120 homes to be built by 2024. So we always have the idea that, perhaps, with smaller, more operational, less bureaucratized structures, we could be more successful in solving this housing problem."

Aware of "frightening data from Lisbon" When it comes to housing, the President of the Benfica Council doesn't hide his concern about the impact of the crisis on his parish. "Benfica has lost 1600 residents in the last decade. We currently have 380 families looking for emergency housing in Benfica; we're talking about serious housing shortages or overcrowding. And we have approximately 6,000 young people in a period of autonomy"describes. "This pressure has increased. Housing is the topic that residents and parishioners approach me about the most in the street, after garbage collection." In view of this situation, Benfica has, since January 2022, a "service office"A public service office will be set up in the council building to help people find homes and thus provide a more local response to the population's needs.

A complement to the government's and the city council's affordable rent projects

The production of housing by the parish of Benfica will be accompanied by two other major affordable rent projects. One is the Quinta da BaldayaThis will be carried out by the government through the IHRU. They will be 266 homes for affordable rentin an investment of 51.8 million eurosThese houses will be built at the back of the Baldaya Palace, a cultural and social space in the parish, on the former premises of the National Veterinary Research Laboratory. As well as housing - with underground parking - the development will have areas for commerce and services.

The other project is affordable municipal rent on Avenida Marechal Teixeira RebeloThe project is planned to be carried out by a private developer under a concession scheme. However, the public tender launched a year ago by Lisbon City Council was abandoned because no promoter considered the concession model attractive. In an interview with LPP, Housing Councillor Filipa Roseta explained that this model is being revised: instead of the private sector building 70% for affordable rent and 30% for free sale, the Municipal Executive's proposal is for all the construction to be for affordable housing, but leveled by the rents in the Government's ordinance and not by the municipal rents. "The houses are all for affordable rent, but the rents are a little higher than the municipal rents. And what's higher? It's 20% below market"Filipa Roseta has yet to approve this new model with the opposition. But she hopes to succeed relaunch the competition in 2024.

The Mayor of Benfica hopes that the municipality's affordable rent project will progress in the same way as the IHRU project is now underway. O investment The project is expected to cost more than 100 million euros and, according to what is known, there will be around 680 homes spread over seven buildings, which will also have commercial and service spaces. This housing complex will fill the void next to Hospital da Luz. "With our 350 apartments, plus these municipal apartments and the IHRU apartments at Quinta da Baldaya, we'd have a very interesting public housing response - not counting the Boavista neighborhood - in a highly inhabited parish like Benfica."says Ricardo Marques.

But the 150 to 350 houses owned by the Junta will be scattered throughout the parish. "The main objective of buying and rehabilitating dispersed heritage is to have a policy of full inclusion"Ricardo explains. "I'm very opposed to what the municipality is doing with the massive channeling of PRR resources into municipal neighborhoods. Neighborhoods have needs and we need to invest in their regeneration - and we know this because we have the Boavista neighborhood, which is very important. But a city is also built by dispersing people of different characteristics throughout its territory, so that we create two cities."

A student residence and a new dynamic in Calhariz Velho

The Benfica parish council is, as far as we know, the only one in the country to produce affordable housing, taking advantage of the PRR opportunity. However, the parish's response in this field is not limited to the 150 to 350 apartments. Benfica is building, also with support from the PRR, what is the first university residence designed and operated by a portuguese parish council.

It will 120 beds, 70 of them for displaced students, with monthly rents of between 70 and 80 eurosexplains Ricardo Marques. "Six rooms will be adapted for people with reduced mobility and we'll also have 10 beds for displaced teachers"he adds. The building will also have a auditorium and a open gym not only to the future inhabitants of this residence, but to the entire community of the parish and the city.

"It's going to be an infrastructure open to the community"which promises to bring a new dynamic and energy to the Calhariz Velho neighborhood - "an unloved area of the city that has been neglected by public investment for a long time"says the mayor. The Benfica Parish Council applied to the support line for the creation of affordable student accommodation, and was the only council to do so. This building will cost 3.9 million eurosThe project is fully covered by the PRR and, if all goes well, should be ready in the first half of next year. "The residence will be very closely linked to the Polytechnic and also to local clubs, which will be able to bring athletes and have a housing solution for them while they are here studying. It will allow for very interesting synergies."

The student residence is just one part of a urban regeneration operation that the Benfica Parish Council intends to carry out in Calhariz Velho. Next to the house, he wants to build a building with 50 affordable apartments - "this is the major operation I was talking about earlier, which depends on the agreement of the City Council" -, create new areas of public enjoyment such as a skate park, and requalify the streets, establishing a coexistence zone in the neighborhood, "slowing down the speed of cars, giving priority to pedestrians and creating a village square in front of the Zé Pinto restaurant, with a bandstand, which can be used for cultural purposes".

Ricardo Marques said "the Junta has 300 thousand euros" to carry out this urban regeneration, relying on funds from the PRR and also funding from the municipality under the delegation of powers contracts. The vision of the Parish of Benfica is that Calhariz Velho can enter the tourist route of the Rossio-Sintra axis with two purposes: on the one hand, "getting to know the traditional Portuguese restaurants on offer, Zé Pinto, Galé dos Manos, Solar dos Leitões, David da Buraca..."; on the other, to discover Monsanto. Ricardo wants Calhariz to become "the preferential entrance to Monsanto, allowing families and even tourists to discover Monsanto from here and from the proximity of the train line".

The Junta's urban regeneration project for Calhariz Velho has already been presented to the local population and is currently underway. under approval by the Municipality. Ricardo hopes to be able to put it into practice this term, but says that in order to stitch this whole urban fabric together, EMEL's promised redevelopment of Estrada do Calhariz needs to go ahead.This road runs alongside the Calhariz Velho neighborhood and the public tender for its redevelopment had been launched in 2021, but it was deserted. It was never relaunched. "It's been two years and nothing"says the Mayor. The project called for a reduction in the number of lanes, a cycle path, better sidewalks and a green corridor.