New Strategies to Help Homeless People in the Lisbon City Area

This exploratory project was born in the aftermath of meetings held with the town councilor responsible for social action in Lisbon’s City Council. The councilor wished to collaborate with us to revise the municipality’s current framework of social policies. Professor Elliott Sclar, of Columbia University’s Earth Institute, is an external consultant to this project. The purpose of the Columbia consultancy is to ensure that this investigation has conditions for success and also access to the scientific and academic resources of an internationally renowned institution in the field of poverty and exclusion. The project will include a comparative analysis of U.S. support strategies directed to the homeless population. The U.S. has a tradition of investigation and action in the field of exclusion-related problems in the formal housing market; and also has experience with support for the homeless population, namely in the philosophical and organizational principles of the “Ten Year Plans”.

José Lúcio, PhD is Professor of Economic Development, New University of Lisbon, Portugal. His main scientific interests include Poverty, Social Exclusion, Local Development and Marketing Places. He teaches courses on Mathematics for Social Sciences in Geography and Regional Planning, Marketing Places in Regional Planning, and Poverty Alleviation Strategies in Territory Management. Currently, his main lines of research are related to poverty alleviation in metropolitan areas, urban marketing and city development. In 2007, he organized an International Conference on Poverty and Social Exclusion that gathered 500 people in Lisbon, including specialists, researchers, professors, students and NGO members. Currently, he is a member of Lisbon City Hall task force for homelessness problems and strategies. In 2008/2009 he conducted a study dedicated to the analysis of strategies aimed at helping homeless people in the Lisbon City Area.

PDF of Powerpoint Presentation: New Strategies-Lisbon

Click here for Audio of Jose Lucio's Presentation