Emergency Housing Fund has had €100 million for a year

Almost a year after the ‘green light’ was given by Portuguese MPs, an Emergency Housing Fund remains unimplemented. The proposal to amend the State Budget for 2024 (OE2024) provides for the use of 25% of the Stamp Duty (IS) charged on all real estate transactions for the fund and the Minister of Infrastructure and Housing, Miguel Pinto Luz, points to the first quarter of 2025 for the presentation of the law decree that will make this fund operational.

However, Rui Tavares, MP of the Livre party, argues that if the government wants to comply with the law, this fund should come into force in the last quarter of this year. “There would still be time, if there was the political will on the part of the government,” he said in statements to Jornal Económico (JE).

António Machado, secretary general of the Lisbon Tenants Association (AIL), has also criticised the lack of action from governments in this process, who regrets that the political camp ends up not regulating what it has to regulate and does not fulfil its obligations. “This means that many people who could benefit from this fund during this period did not benefit,” he says, hoping that the €100 million will not “be held up somewhere” within the surplus for the State Budget 2024.

In turn, Rui Tavares reiterates that this fund should come into force later this year, because the State Budget for 2024, regardless of whether it was approved by the previous parliament, is a law of the Republic that is not being complied with. “It is actually this Government that goes into default as of December 31 of this year”, recalling other past examples, such as the unemployment benefit for victims of domestic violence, which “was also a struggle to get after being approved in the Budget and being implemented.

The Emergency Housing Fund also aims to ensure that people do not have to leave their homes (by supporting the payment of rents or loan instalments), while guaranteeing emergency support to those who are deprived of their housing and have no alternative, for example by guaranteeing temporary accommodation.

This Livre party proposal was approved on November 28, 2023 at a meeting of the Budget and Finance Committee, with votes against from the Liberal Initiative and Chega parties, the abstention of the Social Democratic Party (SDP), the Portuguese Communist Party (PCP) and the Left Bloc (Bloco de Esquerda), with the votes in favour from all the other parties.