The parliamentary group of Chega in the Assembly of the Republic has presented a draft resolution calling on the government to create a national programme to survey, transfer and rehabilitate vacant public housing assets. The proposal gives priority to abandoned State neighbourhoods and was developed through work in the Committee on Infrastructure, Housing and Mobility, where Madeiran deputy Francisco Gomes serves as coordinator of the parliamentary group. It also calls for the urgent identification of vacant or underused public properties, including old prison neighbourhoods, neighbourhoods connected to dams and hydroelectric plants, workers’ villages and other public housing complexes that are now abandoned. Chega further recommends transferring these properties to interested municipalities, opening financing lines for rehabilitation and using the sites for affordable housing and controlled cost rental properties. Francisco Gomes said the country is facing a brutal housing crisis while the State allows entire neighbourhoods to deteriorate, which he described as incompetence and an insult to Portuguese families. He argued that there are hundreds of unused public properties at a time when thousands of Portuguese struggle to pay rent or find a home, and criticised the government for building new projects instead of maintaining existing assets. The deputy also said recovering these neighbourhoods could help fight depopulation in the interior and encourage settlement outside the large urban centres, and he hopes parliament will approve the initiative.
