According to the study, which is the result of a partnership between Nova SBE, the “La Caixa” Foundation and BPI, the “poor population has very marked housing shortages”.

“In 2022, 20.5% of poor families lived in overcrowded accommodation (compared to 7.2% of the non-poor population). The proportion of the population with excessive housing costs is also higher among families at risk of poverty,” point out the authors of the report, Susana Peralta, Bruno P. Carvalho and Miguel Fonseca, members of the Nova SBE Economics for Policy Knowledge Center.

In addition, the percentage of poor people living in overcrowded housing and who consider housing costs an excessive burden increased by 1.9 percentage points. Such increases “do not affect non-poor people,” according to the study data.

Access to adequate housing is also a fundamental component of the population’s living conditions. The poor population suffers from greater housing deprivation in all dimensions: in 2022, 35.7% of the poor and 14% of the non-poor population in Portugal reported not being able to keep their homes adequately heated.

Almost a quarter of the elderly live in homes with roofs, walls, windows, and floors permeable to water, and 1% live in housing without indoor bath/shower facilities, for example.