Work will include improvements to existing apartments and/or new construction. Lisbon Council, along with estate management company Gebalis, local parishes and residents’ associations mapped out and “analysed the most degraded” situations.
Around €25 million has been allocated for the ‘Aqui Há Mais Bairro’ programme alone, which covers 21 of the city’s 70 council estates; €3.9 million was spent on it last year, €10.4 million this year and €10.5 million has been budgeted for the programme for 2017.
Speaking to newspaper Correio da Manhã, Paula Marques, Lisbon Councillor for Habitation and Local Development, said “the estates did not have the maintenance that they should have had”.
She said ten new neighbourhoods have been identified to be covered by the Aqui Há Mais Bairro programme, which will be extended thanks to a €250 million loas from the European Investment Bank to Lisbon Council.
Ms Marques said work is ongoing in the Padre Cruz and Boavista neighbourhoods and that the Cruz Vermelha council estate needs “urgent intervention” which Lisbon council will undertake “straight away.”
She added the resident’s main complaints are related to the small sizes of the properties, humidity and infiltrations.
Some neighbourhoods have not had maintenance work done on them for 20 or 30 years, she said.