Inside Lisbon's housing crisis

Can you store 86 years of someone's life in a 10m2 room? Nazaré Jorge can. For the last three years, the Portuguese pensioner has been living in a tiny room provided by the municipality of Lisbon. Unable to pay the rent of the apartment she had shared for four decades with her aunt, she was evicted in 2019. 

She was escorted out of the flat by police, and later allocated the room she now calls home. There are no wardrobes, so clothes, medicines, photos and all her belongings are kept in plastic bags scattered around the bed. She spent her 84th birthday in front of the Ministry of Infrastructure and Housing to demand proper housing.

On a very hot June morning, I spent almost three hours listening to her story and filming the squalid room in which she now lives.

Just some weeks before, I had been put on the story that can be summed up as "Lisbon´s Housing Crisis". Portugal's, but especially the capital's, property market is now what analysts call one of Europe's "most dynamic". But this comes with a heavy human cost. 

Enticed by successful programmes to attract foreign investment, new real state developments, renovation projects and tourist accommodation have mushroomed across the capital. 

As a result, property prices and rents have skyrocketed. A thriving economy that is pushing prices up -and certain people like Nazaré out.

Our fixer, Miguel Jorge Dias, got in touch with Nazaré through the NGO, Stop Despejos (Stop Evictions) that, along with another NGO called Habita!, provided us with the points of view of those bearing the brunt of this social housing shortage. 

To my amazement, even the centre that houses Habita! is under the threat of eviction, as the landlord has refused to renew the rental contract. The reason is unclear