A/HRC/34/51/Add.2 4. Social housing 54. In all of Portugal there are only 120,000 social housing units, a figure that seems rather low in the light of the national poverty rate. A total of 12,285 units are managed by IHRU, while the rest are owned and managed mainly by various municipalities and, to a small extent, by other entities. The city of Lisbon provides the greatest amount of social housing in Portugal (26,000 units). Waiting lists for social housing are long; for example, according to IHRU, approximately 4,000 households applied for a unit in 2016. The average waiting period is two years. The Special Rapporteur learned, however, that, in the municipalities of Lisbon and Porto, the wait can be as long as seven years for some categories of units. 55. One of the key social housing projects in Portugal is run through the PER) established for the metropolitan areas of Lisbon and Porto (see para. 33 above). As described above, the main objective of the programme is to provide resettlement to households living in “non-conventional” dwellings, such as barracas (shacks) or self-built homes made of perishable materials, on either public or private land, for Roma communities living in camps or other communities, such as persons of African descent living in informal settlements. Under the programme, municipalities acquire buildings or dwellings, which they refurbish for the relocation of households included in the 1993/95 survey (see para. 34 above). 56. Under the PER programme, 17,000 social housing units have been built, for the benefit of thousands of households. Because the units have been built as enclaves on the outskirts of cities, however, there is concern that the programme has led to ghettoization and social exclusion, owing also to a lack of efficient forms of transportation to city centres. 57. In Lisbon, the Special Rapporteur visited social housing that was in a serious state of neglect and disrepair. In one particularly derelict neighbourhood, built 16 years ago, beneath the flight path of the airport nearby, buildings were crumbling, with cracked foundations and walls, exposed wiring, sewage problems, a lack of recreational areas for children, and dirty, poorly lit common areas. In some cases, empty units were simply boarded-up, unused despite exceptionally long waiting lists. The Special Rapporteur was also informed that lack of sufficient social housing had led to overcrowding. According to INE, in 2012, the proportion of overcrowded primary residencies in Portugal represented 11 per cent of total housing. 58. The Special Rapporteur was unable to find reliable information on the percentage of national and municipal budgets allocated to the maintenance and construction of social housing. In keeping with the memorandum of understanding, the focus of policies and programmes implemented by the Government and municipal authorities is on the creation of private, market-based housing options for the working poor. The Special Rapporteur was informed that, in Porto, not a single new unit of social housing had been built since the 1990s. This was explained as being related to a lack of available resources, and also to the priority given to rehabilitation of existing housing stock. 59. The Special Rapporteur was pleased to learn that changes to the eligibility criteria for social housing and the manner in which housing was allocated were under way in Lisbon, although it is difficult to determine whether the new system will result in faster placement of tenants in social housing or whether it will address shortages in its supply. 60. Under international human rights law, social housing is certainly not the only reasonable response to housing deficits; in the light of the socioeconomic and demographic composition of Portugal, it could surely be part of the answer. 13