Housing rights campaigners are set to pitch camp in Portimão’s Praça do Município on Saturday, 7 November, from 6pm. The event will be host to cultural activities, a community kitchen, and a people’s assembly. It builds on the movement’s first assembly, held on 1 November.
This event comes as part of a larger wave of housing encampments across Portugal’s cities, all fighting against what campaigners describe as the exorbitant cost of buying or renting a home.
“Portimão is now joining the fight for the right to housing,” say the organisers, who want to extend to the Algarve the grassroots movements that have sprung up elsewhere in the country. They argue that any mobilisation here must reflect the region’s particular circumstances, where “inequality and insecurity in access to housing have been an issue for decades”.
In their statement, the activists describe Portimão as “one of the most expensive cities in the country for housing” and point to the toll taken by the tourist season. “It is all too common here for homes to be let from September to May, and for tenants to then have to move out to make way for tourists between May and September,” they comment.
The campaigners also take aim at the focus of the region’s building efforts. “There is a great deal of construction, but only for hotels and private condominiums,” the organisers claim.
The camp is intended to bring the local community together around these demands. Participants are invited to bring a tent and join the activities in the square.
“Bring your tent and join us. And bring your friends, too,” the press release reads.
Source: Jornal do Algarve / Acampada de Portimão
Photo credit: Acampada de Portimão
