The plan should involve "government, local authorities, private entities, cooperatives", among others, the organization says in the work entitled "Social Housing in the EU and in Portugal: Current Situation and Future Challenges", which aims to contribute to the public debate on the topic of housing.

Cáritas also proposes the transfer of land with infrastructure in cities "for self-construction", some to be sold at moderate prices and others to be sold "at public auction at market prices" to groups of people, with both cases targeting groups of young people, technicians, teachers, liberal professionals, among others.

The provision of homes at affordable or controlled prices, the creation of "a financing program for local authorities, IPSS, Misericórdias, cooperatives (...) for the construction of housing", as well as "a national program for the provision of homes with affordable rents", developed by the government and local authorities, are other proposals from Cáritas.

The study highlights the importance of "good social housing policies", considering that "in the medium/long term", it has "advantages for the cities that make it available, meeting the needs of their citizens and improving the safety and comfort of all", in addition to being "a good opportunity for the real estate sector and for the economy and employment".

Nuno Alves, from the board of Cáritas Portuguesa, uses the census to recall that "the percentage of young people between 25 and 34 years old who owned their own home decreased in 2021 to the levels recorded 40 years ago".

In the preface to the study, the official also warns about the situation of the homeless, whose number "has increased dramatically in recent years, amounting to around 11,000 in 2022" and which "has certainly grown more recently".

In this case, Cáritas advocates first and foremost a "preventive approach", by combating the causes of the problem and detecting the risks of living as homeless, to prevent the number from increasing.

The organization's proposals include the urbanization of land for the construction of social housing for the homeless, the reinforcement of support for adults, young people and children leaving institutions, namely in terms of housing, and "more investment for public and/or social housing".

Cáritas also suggests the "creation of a real estate investment bank", whose funds could come from the European Investment Bank and be used by "real estate developers in the form of cheap or subsidized loans".

The "improvement of housing support, namely through the allocation of subsidies for housing costs (gas, water, electricity and sanitation)", the "allocation of subsidies for renting houses that the homeless can use" and the "extension of policies on homelessness and housing to include migrants and mobile EU citizens" are other proposals.

According to the study, the number of people living as homeless has been growing steadily throughout Europe in the last decade and "2022 estimates from the European Federation of National Organizations Working with the Homeless (FEANTSA) and the Abbé Pierre Foundation" refer to a total of "896,340 people sleeping rough or in emergency accommodation in Europe", which "represents an increase of 28% in three years".

The study makes a comparison with the situation in other Member States of the European Union (EU), stating that "the public or state housing stock in Portugal does not exceed 120,000 homes, that is, around 2% of the total number of homes in the country", while "the European average is 12%".

It also includes information on social housing policies adopted by four countries in the bloc -- Austria, Denmark, Finland and the Netherlands --, which it considers to have "much more equitable systems" than Portugal's and could serve as an example.

In the capital of Austria, Vienna, around 60% of the 1.8 million people living there in 2019 lived in housing subsidized by the municipality.

It usually uses public land or land purchased from private entities that it sells to real estate developers at a price below market value, with the commitment to "rent around half of the development to the municipality", which distributes the houses to low-income residents.

The remaining houses are "on the free market, but with controlled rents and accessible to average incomes (which cannot exceed 25% of the household income)".

In Denmark, almost one million people live in social and affordable housing (one in six inhabitants), with the system based on non-profit housing associations, "around 700 entities that manage 7,500 neighborhoods with a total of 595,000 rental homes, which corresponds to around 20% of the total housing in the country".

In Helsinki, the capital of Finland, "around 70% of the city's real estate (buildings and land) belongs to the municipality, including over 60,000 social housing units". To limit segregation, the local authority determined that "25% of new homes" be for social housing, with the remainder being "for sale or private rent".

In the Netherlands, among the Member States with the most social housing, 34% of housing is public or has a cooperative origin (47% in the capital, Amsterdam).

In a country "with one of the highest incomes in the EU", there are 2.6 million homes with controlled rents and a maximum ceiling of around 800 euros per month.

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