Housing visits and inauguration
The official Municipality Day program continued in the afternoon with a visit – which included the unveiling of a commemorative plaque and the inauguration of two pieces of art by Faro artist Miguel Martins placed in the atrium of each building – to the new 90 low-cost homes located in Senhora da Saúde.
These homes are now fully occupied, having been handed over to their new owners during the first half of 2024. For the Mayor of Faro, Rogério Bacalhau, this "was a day to witness lives that were changed," although "there is still much to be done" in the housing sector.
The Minister of Infrastructure, Miguel Pinto Luz, who, like the Secretary of State for Housing, Patrícia Gonçalves Costa, accompanied the visit, thanked the Municipality for its initiative in promoting affordable housing (HCC), considering that "this is a solution for which the support of local authorities is essential and for which the social responsibility of companies is essential".
"The Government has a responsibility to resolve the housing crisis, but it is with this support that it can do so more quickly," the minister added, adding that the State may make its own land available to local authorities for housing construction at controlled costs and change land use rules to make more land available.
This was followed by visits to the construction site of the Montenegro housing complex, which will have 49 homes, and to the social housing construction site on Rua Ludovico Menezes, where a total of 22 homes are being built, in addition to a cultural space that will be allocated to a cultural association in the city.
The last initiative integrated into the Municipality Day celebrations was the inauguration of the Residential Home and Occupational Activities Center of the Algarve Association of Parents and Friends of Mentally Handicapped Children (AAPACDM), a much-awaited service for users and families of young people with mental disabilities.
In addition to the Mayor of Faro, Rogério Bacalhau, and the President of the Municipal Assembly of Faro, Cristóvão Norte, the ceremony was also attended by the Secretary of State, Clara Marques Mendes, as well as other distinguished representatives of the Central Administration, deputies, mayors and leaders of various entities in the social sector.
These new AAPACDM facilities, which were built on a plot of land provided for this purpose by the Municipality, cost around 5 million euros, around 2.6 million euros of which were financed by the CRESC Algarve 2020 Regional Operational Programme.
In total, this new infrastructure has capacity for 32 users in the Occupational Activities Center and 30 users in the Residential Home, consisting of activity rooms, physiotherapy rooms and a gym, bedrooms and a common room.
Sandra Gonçalves, director of services and vice-president of the AAPACDM board, said on the sidelines of this inauguration that this was a project "desired for many years and that only now has come to fruition", allowing to meet "a huge need both for young people in our institution and for others who arrive redirected".
This type of shelter, she says, "is a necessary response for these young people who reach an age where their parents are no longer able to take them into their homes." In this sense, she adds, this new facility—named "Commitment," will pay homage to the street where AAPACDM was located for decades, starting in the late 1960s—will accommodate both young people and their families. "We don't want it to be a typical residential home where people are institutionalized: it will have plenty of outdoor space and dialogue with the young people from the Center for Activities and Training for Inclusion," she concluded.
The Secretary of State, Clara Marques Mendes, also thanked the Municipality for its work in this area, admitting that "this is a sector that must be recognized by the State because it never fails people."
The Mayor, Rogério Bacalhau, congratulated himself on what is "a dream come true for AAPACDM and which will allow for a better quality of life for around 60 users and their families of young people with mental disabilities, not only in the municipality but throughout the region."
