The Government of the Azores will subsidise the leasing of 89 houses for households with severe housing shortage on the island of São Miguel in the amount of two million Euros for a 12 year period.
The initiative is part of a collaboration agreement signed between the Regional Secretariat for Labour and Social Solidarity (SRTSS), the Ribeira Grande City Hall and the Institute for Housing and Urban Renewal (IHRU) under the PROHABITA programme.

The total leasing costs of these 89 houses will be of 7,342,560 Euros, being distributed by the IHRU (2,937,024 Euros, corresponding to 40%), the Ribeira Grande City Hall and the Regional Secretariat for Labour and Social Solidarity (2,019,204 Euros each, corresponding to 27.9%), and by tenants (367,128 Euros, corresponding to 5%).

According to an ARAAL collaboration contract, published in the Official Journal on Tuesday, involving the Vice-presidency of the Government (VPG), the Regional Secretariat for Labour and Social Solidarity and the Ribeira Grande City Hall, with this initiative the Azores will have an annual burden of 168,267 Euros until 2022.

Under this contract, the SRTSS is required to re-house 25 households registered at the Regional Directorate for Housing, allocate houses on a supported lease scheme and take the appropriate measures to prevent the reoccupation of the building vacated by other households, ordering the compulsory demolishing of all illegal buildings.

In turn, the VPG for ensuring the compliance with the contract and the good coordination between the entities involved as well as to verify the respective financial allocations in order to identify situations of excess or overlapping with regard to the financial participation of the SRTSS.

The monitoring and control of the project implementation is under the supervision of the SRTSS.