The appalling conditions and lack of support for the homeless in Portugal has resulted in a court action in the Oporto court with a class action set to take on the government that has allowed its citizens to exist in squalour.
The homeless are claiming that the government has evaded its responsibilites and they are demanding that an investigation is carried out into their living conditions.
State lawyers will be checking the small print in the relevant laws as lawyers for the homeless plaintiffs say the government has not 'met the needs stipulated by law.'
This class action and a claim for damages will attract much media attention in the lead up to the autumn general election as the coalition campaigns on 'economy, economy, economy' while trying to sweep from view the resulting human costs of the recession and the government's brutal austerity programme.
The class action will be delivered to the Administrative and Tax Court of Oporto and the lead lawyer, Carla Ramos, admits that this will be the first time in Europe that a member country's government is prosecuted by its homeless.
Ramos added that should Portugal’s courts decide the state has no obligation to its homeless above that currently provided, the case swiftly will be taken to the international courts.
One of the claims in the petition it that ‘the state is obliged to stipulate and ensure the minimum conditions for subsistence.’
The lawyer said that the homeless should be compensated for how they have been treated, including compensation for families when people have died as a direct result of being made homeless and not having been provided with at least the bare minimum according to law.
