The editorial text of the 45th edition of the journal Cities, Communities and Territories, published under the theme Access to housing and Covid-19: readings from the metropolitan areas of Lisbon and Porto, co-edited by the researchers Sílvia Viegas (CIAC/UAlg) and Sílvia Jorge (CiTUA-IST), presents the scope of the work all the while stressing the following:
“The difficulty of accessing housing in Portugal is structural and transversal to the entire urban society. It has become more acute with the growing processes of financialization, commodification and touristification that have taken place in the country in recent decades, with greater expression in the metropolitan areas of Lisbon and Porto, affecting both the so-called middle class and the more vulnerable groups with lower income. It is, therefore, in these geographies that the greatest difficulties have been felt, although similar processes occur in other regions of the country, with the cost of housing, in terms of purchase and sale and rent, reaching maximum values. This housing crisis precedes the Covid-19 pandemic, but it was particularly evident during and after its appearance, stressing old and new challenges that now urgently need to be answered.”
VIEGAS, Sílvia; JORGE, Sílvia (Eds.) (2022). Acesso à habitação e Covid-19: Leituras a partir das Áreas Metropolitanas de Lisboa e Porto [Special issue]. CIDADES, Comunidades e Territórios, 45, iii-v.