The Regional Secretary for Social Solidarity visited on Monday four houses that were renewed under an ARAAL collaboration contract between the Government of the Azores and Santa Cruz da Graciosa Town Hall in the amount of 600 thousand Euros. This contract is intended to subsidise the renewal works of 30 degraded houses in several villages of that municipality under the programme to support the renewal of degraded housing.

According to Piedade Lalanda, the four houses that were recently recovered are part of a group of eighteen houses covered by this programme, representing an investment of 300 thousand Euros.

As the Regional Secretary stressed, these interventions evidence the "importance of housing for the living conditions of families" as well as for "their social inclusion."

Piedade Lalanda also said that the Azorean Government also intends that the "interventions in housing recovery should be always followed by the monitoring of the families benefiting from this programme."

The fact that the Regional Secretariat for Social Solidarity has jurisdiction over social work and housing was another aspect highlighted by Piedade Lalanda, who stressed the "importance of coordinating both areas in the field with technicians and establishing a partnership to optimise the investments made in the area of housing."