The solution to the housing problem involves more social housing, says Pinto Luz

The Minister of Infrastructure and Housing argued today that only a focus on public housing can solve the country's housing problem, stressing that this is a problem for everyone, municipalities and the State.

"Prices have risen and will continue to rise. There's no solution to the housing problem without more public housing. But you can't build it overnight," said Miguel Pinto Luz.

The minister was speaking at the Greater Lisbon Summit, promoted by SIC Notícias.

In his speech, the minister argued that this is “a problem that everyone has embraced head-on, but which takes time to resolve.”

"Here, the councils said they were present. They could build more housing here, and they decided to do so, and the State must be grateful for that and guarantee financing for this (social) housing," he stated.

Referring to the issue of demolitions on the Military Slope, in Loures, in the district of Lisbon, Miguel Pinto Luz warned that "this problem is not just in Loures for now" and that the Institute of Housing and Urban Rehabilitation "has land where shacks are built every day".

The governor assured that the Government is "closely monitoring" this problem in Loures and said that he does not point "the finger at those who built it because they needed a place to live," nor at those who are trying to solve the problem.

“We have to look at both interests and find solutions for these families,” he said, noting that we cannot return to the Lisbon Metropolitan Area of the 1980s, when shantytowns proliferated, which have since been eradicated by the Special Rehousing Plan (PER).

Stressing that "Loures is not alone," the Minister of Infrastructure and Housing admitted that "no one is unmoved by those who do not have a place to stay at night," but stated that neighborhoods with precarious housing cannot be allowed to continue to emerge.