Porta 65 has 70% of the valid applications, but they lack budget

Nearly 70% of applications for the Porta 65 youth lease program meet the criteria, but are without support due to lack of budget allocation, said the president of the Institute of Housing and Urban Rehabilitation (IHRU).

 

If we had the money to approve all the applications that can be approved, it would have required € 38.4 million ", - more than triple the budget allocation of € 12.2 million in 2016, the president of IHRU, Victor Reis, noting that the calculation is done according to the current configuration of the program.

 

At a hearing with the Working Group on Housing, Urban Rehabilitation and City Policies, Victor Reis said that the main challenge in the management of Porta 65 is "budget availability every year" as the program receives about of 10 thousand applications per year.

 

"There are 68% of applications that can be approved, but for which there is no grant," said the IHRU president.

 

The Porta 65 youth rental support program was launched in 2007 and consists of the allocation of a percentage of the rent as a monthly subsidy, which can be renewed for up to three years, with young beneficiaries between the ages of 18 and 30 as beneficiaries. Applications that include minors and people with disabilities and who are in special locations are benefited.

 

Regarding the bills of PSD, CDS-PP, BE and PCP to increase the maximum age of beneficiaries from 30 to 35 years, the president of the IHRU affirmed that changing age "is a matter of political choice", extrapolating that for such it would be necessary to increase the budget allocation to € 56.8 million.

 

CDS-PP, BE and PCP also wish that the financial support of Porta 65 be "granted in the form of a non-refundable monthly grant for periods of 12 months and may be renewed in subsequent applications up to a maximum of 60 months (five years) ", When currently the maximum period of allocation of support is three years.

 

According to Victor Reis, the five-year limit will have a "significant impact", since a budget allocation of 67.5 million euros would be needed - this keeping the percentage of support down over the years.

 

Regarding the communists´ proposal that the support always be 50% of the income, and there is no reduction of that percentage over the five years, the leader of the IHRU estimated that would require 88.7 million euros per year.

 

Since the beginning of the program - in December 2007 - to date, Porta 65 has registered a total of 80,800 applications approved, involving 117,865 young people, since, in addition to isolated youth, grants are awarded to couples and young people living in cohabitation.

 

According to the IHRU data, of the 80,800 applications approved, only 0.4% are people with disabilities equal to or higher than 60%, about 20% of young applicants have dependents and the remaining 80% do not have dependents.

 

In relation to the typology of real estate, the T2, where the average income is 347 euros, represent 60% of the total number of applications; the T1, where the average income is 324 euros, represent 30% of the applications; T3 represents 6%; T0 represents 3%; and T4 and T5 are "absolutely residual".

 

The President of the IHRU also pointed out that the monthly subsidy of Porta 65 in the first year (50% of income) has an average value of 174 euros, in the second year (35% of income) is 128 euros and in the third year (25% of the value of the rent) is 99 euros. The main municipalities with young candidates for the Porta 65 program are Lisbon (8%), Gaia (5.5%), Sintra (4.6%), Porto (4.6%) and Braga (3.9%).

 

Source: Observer