Thousands of tenants who meet the criteria to receive income support remain without the subsidy and remain without a response from the Housing and Urban Rehabilitation Institute.
More than two years after the creation of extraordinary rent support, thousands of tenants who meet the criteria continue to not receive the subsidy to which they are entitled. The Housing and Urban Rehabilitation Institute (IHRU) had given guarantees that all late payments would be regularized by October, but many beneficiaries returned to see the month end without receiving support.
Created in 2023, the support is aimed at families with income up to the sixth IRS bracket and a effort rate greater than 35% in the payment of rent, covering contracts concluded until March 15, 2023. The process is automatic, based on tax data, but this automation has become a source of successive failures: any “incongruity” in income or contracts leads to immediate suspension of supportwithout prior warning or explanation. Many tenants considered eligible never received any amount or justification.
The glitches began shortly after the program was launched. In 2023, the Court of Auditors identified more than 35 thousand eligible people who never received the subsidy, mainly due to lack of banking information. Today, the exact number of affected beneficiaries is unknown. On social media, reports are multiplying from citizens who have not received payment since the beginning of 2023 or others who have seen the amounts decrease or disappear for no apparent reason. Attempts to contact the IHRU and the Ministry of Housing receive no response most of the time.
In October, the institute stated that there were 129,642 eligible tenants and 58,659 with support suspended due to “inconsistencies”, says . Two weeks later, a statement corrected the numbers: 134,100 beneficiaries received support and 43,000 had their payment blocked. The following day, the president of the IHRU, Benjamim Pereira, spoke of 180 thousand beneficiaries, 134 thousand paid and 45 thousand suspended. These discrepancies in numbers were never clarified.
