RodrigoWhy are we launching a social housing fund for homelessness in Lisbon?
Direitos de autor: © 2020 LUSA - Agência de Notícias de Portugal, S.A.
Everyone needs a place to start from
We are launching a social housing fund in Lisbon to address homelessness and defend the right of every person to have a place where life can unfold with dignity. A space to keep a toothbrush, shoes by the door, and enjoy silence and peace. A space to get back up and become whoever they want to be.
Walk through Lisbon today and you’ll witness a housing crisis - tents in parks and cardboard beds in train stations. Housing demonstrations down the city’s main avenues. An environment that shows how quickly the ground can vanish beneath our feet when rents double, prices rise, or jobs get unstable. Last night in Lisbon, over 3,300 people were homeless. Of those, around 600 slept on the street - hundreds of people without a place to be off guard, and nowhere to start from.
What if we have been getting the order wrong?
Many housing responses to homelessness still follow a "staircase" approach. People are expected to complete treatment, demonstrate that they’re actively seeking employment, or transition through temporary shelters before being considered for permanent housing. However, this logic overlooks the realities of street life and creates barriers to accessing a fundamental human right.
Would we ask a starving person to prove they deserve food?
It’s challenging to rebuild your life while in a state of survival. You can’t plan your future when you don’t know where you’ll sleep tonight. The instability of homelessness makes long-term progress nearly impossible.
The Housing First methodology takes a different approach by offering people experiencing homelessness a permanent home immediately, without any preconditions or requirements. The idea is simple: once someone has a safe and stable place to live, they’re in a much better position to focus on recovery, reconnect with family, or find work on their terms and timeline.
Portugal began piloting Housing First in 2009. Today, in Lisbon, 400 Housing First homes are co-financed by the Municipality and the Social Security Institute. Associação Crescer, a Housing First provider since 2011, demonstrates impressive results: 9 out of 10 participants remain housed, not because every problem disappears, but because they finally have a foundation upon which to build their lives.
Stability is what makes everything else possible.
In Finland, where Housing First has been implemented nationwide, homelessness has dropped by over 40% in the past decade. In the United States, cities such as Salt Lake City and Houston have experienced a significant decline in chronic homelessness after implementing the Housing First approach, achieving long-term housing retention rates of over 90%. These outcomes go beyond stable housing. Housing First participants use emergency services less frequently, engage more with healthcare, and report higher levels of well-being. Studies also show significant public cost savings by reducing reliance on hospitals, shelters, and the justice system.
Investing in stability
We asked ourselves: How do we create more of that impact here - and make it last?
At maze, our bread and butter is designing and launching solutions to accelerate social and environmental impact. We found an answer in designing a new kind of real estate fund - one that serves social impact. With this fund, we are investing €40 million into 200 homes, dedicating them to Housing First programmes. These homes are meant to be stable and affordable over the long term, with capped rents to protect operators from Lisbon’s volatile market. Over the course of 25 years, they could support between 200 and 1,000 people.
At the end of the fund’s life, properties will be sold in phases, either individually or as portfolios, ensuring an orderly exit for investors and an adequate transition for tenants. In a long-term commitment to impact, 10% of the properties will be donated to housing associations, leaving a permanent social housing legacy.
This fund offers a dual return, combining financial performance with measurable social impact. Each euro invested supports both capital growth and the rebuilding of lives. Its structure creates a virtuous cycle:
- Affordable rents make Housing First financially viable.
- That viability lets frontline organisations focus on supporting people instead of chasing funding or apartments;
- Beneficiaries are ensured the consistency they need to recover and rebuild.
Setting a precedent
Lisbon is where the need is most urgent, so that’s where we start. By introducing an unprecedented model and demonstrating its effectiveness in Portugal’s most challenging housing market, we aim to lay the groundwork for broader change.
We aim to scale the lessons learned here to other cities and address other social issues. This same model could support people leaving social services with nowhere to go, survivors of domestic violence rebuilding their lives, or young people aging out of care without a safety net.
Why housing must come first
Housing is the foundation for recovery, independence, and long-term well-being.
That’s why we are launching a fund that unlocks affordable, permanent housing through a proven model. By investing in stability, we create space for people to regain control over their lives - and for frontline organisations to do what they do best.
This model can redefine how we tackle systemic housing challenges, starting in Lisbon and reaching much further.
If you are an impact investor, housing policymaker, or social sector leader looking to scale what works, get in touch with me at rodrigo@maze-impact.com.
References
https://www.idealista.pt/media/relatorios-preco-habitacao/venda/lisboa/lisboa/
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC7525583/
https://housingfirsteurope.eu/what-is-hf/a-beginners-guide-to-housing-first/
https://housingfirsteurope.eu/assets/files/2022/03/Finland-HF-case-study-update-2022.pdf