# History of the right to housing in Portugal, 1974 to today > From the 1974 occupations and SAAL to Article 65 of the Constitution, the PER and the protests of 2023 to 2026: how Portugal’s housing rights came about. URL: https://habitacao-alt.bytetoit.com/en/not-the-first-time/ Language: en-GB Last updated: 2026-10-30 Other languages: pt: https://habitacao-alt.bytetoit.com/nao-e-a-primeira-vez.md, es: https://habitacao-alt.bytetoit.com/es/no-es-la-primera-vez.md, eu: https://habitacao-alt.bytetoit.com/eu/ez-da-lehen-aldia.md, fr: https://habitacao-alt.bytetoit.com/fr/pas-la-premiere-fois.md, it: https://habitacao-alt.bytetoit.com/it/non-e-la-prima-volta.md, el: https://habitacao-alt.bytetoit.com/el/den-einai-i-proti-fora.md, de: https://habitacao-alt.bytetoit.com/de/nicht-zum-ersten-mal.md, cs: https://habitacao-alt.bytetoit.com/cs/neni-to-poprve.md, pl: https://habitacao-alt.bytetoit.com/pl/to-nie-pierwszy-raz.md, ca: https://habitacao-alt.bytetoit.com/ca/no-es-la-primera-vegada.md, gl: https://habitacao-alt.bytetoit.com/gl/non-e-a-primeira-vez.md --- Our history # Not the first time From the 1974 revolution to today’s protests, the story of housing in Portugal is the story of people getting organised. Not the first time ## When residents organised, they gained rights Many of the housing rights we have today came from the pressure of people who organised. These are some of the moments that brought us here. ### 1974: Occupations and residents’ committees Right after the revolution of 25 April, thousands of families occupied empty homes and set up residents’ committees. Housing became one of the great demands of the revolution. ### 1974: SAAL: building with residents The SAAL programme (Serviço Ambulatório de Apoio Local, a mobile local support service) brought architects and residents together to build decent homes in the neighbourhoods where people already lived: the right to stay put. Projects such as Bairro da Bouça in Porto came out of it. ### 1976: Housing in the Constitution Article 65 of the Constitution gives everyone the right to adequate housing and makes the State responsible for delivering it. ### 1993: Special Rehousing Programme (PER) The PER rehoused tens of thousands of families living in shacks around Lisbon and Porto, after decades of pressure from residents. ### 2019: Housing Framework Law For the first time, a framework law (Law 83/2019) recognises housing as a fundamental right and makes the State its guarantor. ### 2023: Back on the streets The Casa Para Viver platform brings dozens of movements together and fills the streets of cities across the country. ### 2026: “Já não dá”: we can’t take any more In March, people march in 16 towns and cities against changes that make evictions easier. The manifesto “Já não dá” is signed by 90 associations, collectives, cooperatives and unions. ### 2026: Tents in the square In October, tent camps in Lisbon’s Rossio and Porto’s Praça D. João I bring housing to the heart of both cities. The police clear them, but the protests keep growing, and on 24 October thousands march in Lisbon and Porto. The right to protest ## Three police charges in ten days In October 2026, police broke up the peaceful housing tent camps by force three times in ten days, always in the early hours. The PSP detained 86 people, and dozens were injured: on the night of 25 October alone, São José and Santa Maria hospitals took in 27 people hurt in the Rossio. [A Carga](https://acarga.pt) gathers the news reports and videos. A square full of tents did not call for batons, dogs and rubber bullets. ### 15/10: Porto, Praça D. João I At around 3 a.m., the PSP clears the camp with batons. Porto’s volunteer firefighters treat eight people and take two to Santo António hospital; the organisers count 37 injured. The Ombudsman asks the PSP for urgent explanations. ### 20/10: Lisbon, Rossio At 6 a.m., with many people still asleep according to the organisers, police remove the tents. 55 people are detained for disobedience and released the same day as formal suspects. ### 25/10: Lisbon and Porto In the early hours after the 24 October marches, police charge with batons and dogs and detain 31 people. São José and Santa Maria hospitals take in 27 injured from the Rossio; the PSP had said five. At São José, people with the injured describe split heads and a young man with a rubber-bullet wound to the face. An Amnesty International observer, in her marked vest, is among those hit with batons. ### What the Constitution and jurists say The [Constitution](https://www.parlamento.pt/Legislacao/Paginas/ConstituicaoRepublicaPortuguesa.aspx) gives everyone the right to assemble “peacefully and without arms, even in places open to the public, without any need for authorisation” (Article 45), and bars the police from going beyond what is “strictly necessary” (Article 272). The PSP relies on a decree-law from August 1974, older than the Constitution, which bans street demonstrations after 12:30 a.m. Many jurists consider the police action unjustified and unlawful: - The constitutional scholar Jorge Reis Novais, a former adviser to President Jorge Sampaio, says the right to demonstrate “has been violated ostensibly” by the police operations. - The constitutional scholar Teresa Violante speaks of “gross” violations of the right to demonstrate, and considers parts of the decree unconstitutional if read literally. - The retired appeal court judge Eurico Reis argues that the decree, which predates 1976, can be considered contrary to the Constitution, in whole or in part. - The lawyer António Garcia Pereira considers the Rossio arrests unlawful and the police action disproportionate. - 430 lawyers signed an open letter: the tents are part of the protest and need no municipal licence, the 1974 decree cannot override the Constitution, refusing an unlawful order to disperse is not the crime of disobedience, and police officers may refuse illegitimate orders (Article 271 of the Constitution). - More than a thousand justice professionals, including lawyers, jurists and law students, sent another open letter to the Presidency of the Republic: the right to demonstrate “is not a concession from political power, but a fundamental right whose exercise does not depend on authorisation”. The Constitutional Court has never ruled on the decree: it is time it did. ### Other tents, a different response Camping in protest is nothing new in Lisbon, and it has almost always been tolerated: - In 2020, restaurant owners camped for a week outside the Assembly of the Republic, on hunger strike. The protest ended in a meeting, not a charge. - In 2020, the JSD, the PSD’s youth wing, spent a night in tents outside the Ministry of Higher Education over the lack of student housing. There was no order to disperse. - In 2023, the S.TO.P. teachers’ union put up around 30 tents in the Rossio, the same square, and then in Largo de Camões. There were no charges. - In March 2026, students from Técnico camped for a night at the campus gate, with no police intervention. - In Porto, in 2024, the city’s firefighters kept a protest tent up for 42 nights, with no police intervention. Having compared these cases, Sábado magazine concludes that the police violence against the housing camps is “almost unprecedented”. ### Why it matters to everyone A tent in a square is a form of expression. When the same act is tolerated for some and broken up with batons for others, the limit is no longer the law but the message, and that restricts everyone’s freedom of expression, whatever the cause. Amnesty International condemns the “excessive and disproportionate use of force”, and the PSP’s own rules forbid baton blows to the head. The President of the Republic, António José Seguro, put it plainly: “These are not normal images for a consolidated democracy.” **We ask for the ongoing inquiries to be completed and made public, for the cases against people who were protesting peacefully to be reviewed, and for the 12:30 a.m. limit to be referred to the Constitutional Court.** ### Sources - Diário de Notícias, 15/10/2026: «[Confrontos nos protestos pela habitação no Porto. Manifestantes denunciam 37 feridos](https://www.dn.pt/sociedade/confrontos-nos-protestos-pela-habitao-no-porto-manifestantes-denunciam-37-feridos)» - CNN Portugal, 18/10/2026: «[Provedora de Justiça pede informações à PSP com urgência sobre carga policial no Porto](https://cnnportugal.iol.pt/habitacao/porto/provedora-de-justica-pede-informacoes-a-psp-com-urgencia-sobre-carga-policial-no-porto/20261018/6ad4cd21d34e9a786e75cc24)» - RTP, 20/10/2026: «[Todos os 55 detidos pela PSP em Lisboa libertados e constituídos arguidos](https://www.rtp.pt/noticias/pais/todos-os-55-detidos-pela-psp-em-lisboa-libertados-e-constituidos-arguidos_e1772823)» - Lusa / Notícias ao Minuto, 20/10/2026: «[Intervenção da PSP nas acampadas pode violar Constituição?](https://www.noticiasaominuto.com/pais/3070016/habitacao-decreto-usado-pela-policia-para-justificar-intervencao-nas-acampadas-levanta-duvidas-a-juristas)» - Sábado, 22/10/2026: «[Acampada pela habitação não é única, mas violência policial é quase inédita](https://www.sabado.pt/portugal/detalhe/acampada-pela-habitacao-nao-e-unica-mas-violencia-policial-e-quase-inedita)» - ZAP, 23/10/2026: «[As 55 detenções em Lisboa terão sido ilegais. Até a polícia duvida do famoso decreto-lei 406/74](https://zap.aeiou.pt/detencoes-ilegais-decreto-lei-1974-771014)» - Sábado, 25/10/2026: «[PSP avança sobre manifestantes em Lisboa e no Porto: há 11 feridos, 31 detidos e novo protesto marcado](https://www.sabado.pt/portugal/detalhe/psp-avanca-sobre-manifestantes-em-lisboa-e-no-porto-ha-11-feridos-e-31-detidos)» - Lusa / RTP, 25/10/2026: «[Acampadas regressam com concentrações em Lisboa e no Porto](https://www.rtp.pt/noticias/lusa/protestos-habitacao-acampadas-regressam-com-concentracoes-em-lisboa-e-no-porto_n1774165)» - Lusa / Notícias ao Minuto, 25/10/2026: «[27 feridos em Lisboa após ação policial na Acampada do Rossio](https://www.noticiasaominuto.com/pais/3072706/27-feridos-em-lisboa-apos-acao-policial-na-acampada-do-rossio)» - Diário de Notícias, 25/10/2026: «[Amnistia Internacional fala em “uso excessivo e desproporcionado da força” nas acampadas e pede investigação](https://www.dn.pt/sociedade/amnistia-internacional-fala-em-uso-excessivo-e-desproporcionado-da-fora-nas-acampadas-e-pede-investigao)» - CNN Portugal, 25/10/2026: «[Habitação: Mais de 200 profissionais da Justiça assinam carta aberta pelo direito à manifestação](https://cnnportugal.iol.pt/protestos/habitacao/habitacao-mais-de-200-profissionais-da-justica-assinam-carta-aberta-pelo-direito-a-manifestacao/20261025/6ade33c9d34e9a786e75db78)» - 24 Notícias, 25/10/2026: «[Da acampada contra a troika à luta dos bombeiros: quando as tendas se tornam símbolos de protesto](https://24noticias.sapo.pt/atualidade/artigos/da-acampada-contra-a-troika-a-luta-dos-bombeiros-quando-as-tendas-se-tornam-simbolos-de-protesto)» - Diário de Notícias, 26/10/2026: «[Acampadas. Observadora da Amnistia entre agredidos à bastonada. Normas da PSP proíbem impactos na cabeça](https://www.dn.pt/sociedade/acampada-rossio-observadora-da-amnistia-internacional-entre-agredidos-bastonada-pela-psp)» - Lisboa Para Pessoas, 27/10/2026: «[“Tenho praticamente a idade da Revolução e nunca vi isto na minha vida.” A noite em que a acampada foi pelo direito à manifestação](https://lisboaparapessoas.pt/2026/10/27/acampada-manifestacao-direito-violencia-policial/)» - Lusa / Notícias ao Minuto, 27/10/2026: «[Manifestação: “Violação” ou “abuso”? Constitucionalistas explicam](https://www.noticiasaominuto.com/pais/3073503/violacao-do-direito-ou-abuso-de-direito-constitucionalistas-explicam)» - Diário de Notícias, 27/10/2026: «[Seguro sobre intervenção policial nas acampadas: “Não são imagens normais para uma democracia consolidada”](https://www.dn.pt/pol%C3%ADtica/seguro-sobre-interveno-policial-nas-acampadas-no-so-imagens-normais-para-uma-democracia-consolidada)» - Postal, 28/10/2026: «[Protestos pela habitação: 430 advogados defendem que polícias devem recusar ordens ilegítimas de superiores para dispersar manifestantes](https://postal.pt/nacional/protestos-pela-habitacao-430-advogados-defendem-que-policias-devem-recusar-ordens-ilegitimas-de-superiores-para-dispersar-manifestantes/)» - RTP: [Carta aberta de advogados contesta intervenções policiais e defende a desobediência dos agentes da PSP](https://www.rtp.pt/noticias/mundo/carta-aberta-de-advogados-contesta-intervencoes-policiais-e-defende-a-desobediencia-dos-agentes-da-psp_n1774857) - Lusa / Notícias ao Minuto, 29/10/2026: «[Após atuação da PSP, mil profissionais da Justiça escrevem a Seguro](https://www.noticiasaominuto.com/pais/3075023/habitacao-carta-aberta-pelo-direito-de-manifestacao-enviada-a-presidencia-da-republica)» ## Housing is a right. Let’s make sure it’s honoured. Join the people getting organised in buildings, neighbourhoods and workplaces all over Portugal. [Take part](https://habitacao-alt.bytetoit.com/en/take-part/) · [Get in touch](mailto:direito.habitacao@proton.me)