The Grail Portugal (an international Christian-inspired movement, a community of women) and FGS - Gonçalo da Silveira Foundation (A Jesuit NGO), together with 40 civil society organizations from the Centre and Countryside of Portugal and from the capital city of Lisbon, have collaboratively developed, over two years, an Open Letter for the “Right to the Place”. In it they identify some of the reasons which force people to give up living in places with which they identify themselves, to which they feel connected, and to which they feel they belong. 

This collective position paper proposes a wide range of measures that contribute to responding to the problem of population loss in rural areas and in the centres of large cities. It raises questions about housing, mobility, integration and participation of vulnerable groups, employment, public spaces, and accessibility to services of general interest. To have the “Right to the Place” implies the creation of conditions so that all people can live in a place and “live that place”. That means that people shouldn’t be forced to give up living in places they would like to live and at the same time being able to move safely and enjoy public facilities. The document was publicly presented on April 28th. 

This initiative takes place in a moment when Portugal prepares municipal elections (next October). This project identified several territorial asymmetries and intends to influence policies that will reverse this trend. The next steps for the proponents of this open letter will be to reach a larger number of signatories and to meet with various politicians in order to make their proposals known.