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CDS Wants to Transform Lisbon’s Former Hospitals into Affordable Housing

10 May 2018

The hospitals Miguel Bombarda and Desterro are no longer functioning. São José, Santa Marta and Capuchos will also cease operations by 2022. CDS wants to transform the buildings into affordable housing.

This Thursday, the CDS-PP (People’s Party) presented a proposal to Portugal’s National Assembly, whereby the former hospitals on Santana hill would be converted into housing with affordable rents. The news was reported by Público, in an interview with the CDS councillor João Gonçalves Pereira.

The hospitals include the Miguel Bombarda, Desterro, San José, Santa Marta and Capuchos. The first two have already shut down, and the last three will cease operations in the near future or lose much of the services they have today, due to the inauguration of the new hospital in Chelas. This, the party believes, creates “a unique opportunity to intervene in an integrated and systematic way in this area of the city,” Público reported.

All of the buildings belong to Estamo, a state-owned real estate holding company that acquired the properties from the Portuguese state itself, and to which it pays rent. The CDS’ proposal would have the municipality sign an agreement with Estamo ” to the rehabilitation and reconversion of vacant hospital buildings” and “their subsequent allocation to a housing rental program at affordable prices.” At the same time, the CDS is proposing that the agreement include schools and health care.

“To promote the supply of housing where the market is not providing sufficient product, especially for the young and the middle class, in an area that is central has easy access to public transport, the conditions must be created to supply housing at affordable prices. The needed rehabilitation of the buildings on the Santana Hill should take this necessity into account,” the CDS wrote in the proposal submitted to Parliament, which will be discussed this afternoon in a plenary session.

The new Hospital of Eastern Lisbon will be inaugurated in 2022 and, for now, there are no plans for the future of Santana hill. Público reported that the buildings would not be demolished, but any future use of former hospitals has yet to be defined.

Original Story: Economia Online

Translation: Richard Turner