Algarve teachers forced to live on campsites whilst waiting for homes

Only a few days from their first day of work, teachers are looking to tent and camping sites for accommodation, as many can’t afford alternative accommodation until mid-September, when rental prices decrease. Unions say the problem is getting worse in the Algarve, where tourism is seemingly because less seasonal, indicating the possibility of high rental prices not only being limited to the summer.

On the 2^nd of September, the 24,000 teachers placed for teaching during the 2019-2020 school year will begin working in the schools where they were placed. Many come to the Algarve each year away from home, looking for accommodation in an area where tourism is notably the main culprit for high rental prices – at least until mid-September, the end of the high season. With no alternatives, some choose to stay in campsites, others in hostels and hotels.

A problem that “has been getting worse because of the volume of tourism in the area”, which is also “increasingly less seasonal”, says the president of the Southern Democratic Teachers Union (SDP South), Josefa Lopes.

“Refurbished holiday apartment”, “Algarve holiday home”, “1 bedroom apartment, 2 minutes’ walk from the beach”. Just a little research on the internet opens one’s eyes to realizing the difficulty of finding a house in the Algarve that is not intended for couples or families on vacation.

If, by chance, a longer-term lease notice comes up, it is usually only a period from October (already one month after school starts) to May (still two months from the end of the teachers’ working season.)

The lack of alternatives leads many teachers placed in Algarve schools to drop out, admits the SDP Sul leader. “Because they have families, and the conditions offered to them are not at all reasonable to take their children with them,” she says.

“I know many colleagues who are currently greatly stressed because they start work on the 2nd but accommodation is only available around the 15th in most cases,” wrote Arlindo Ferreira, director of the Blind Schools Grouping on Tuesday.

In many cases, even the less expensive post-summer rent is still too much for some teaches. “I just called a T2 landlord who asked for 600 euros a month. But this is more than half of my salary,” says one Susana Ferreira, a teacher moving to the Algarve from Braga. “I will not spend 500 euros a week either. We do not earn enough to pay this. Even a campsite bungalow is a difficult place to stay, because they are expensive.”

As early as July of this year, Susana worked hard to secure a house for September, although she could only move in to the accommodation in the middle of September, so is considering bringing a tent to a campsite to last her until the 15th.

A worrying prospect for these teachers is that the life span of tourism in the Algarve is no longer as predictable as it once was. “Those who accept to stay in this situation think that the situation will be transitory. Maybe it is, but our tourism is becoming less seasonal,” says unionist Josefa Lopes. And what would be a temporary alternative eventually could become a permanent situation. This situation has been known to unions and Government alike for many years. The secretary-general of the National Teachers’ Federation (Fenprof) recalled a co-worker who “ran a campsite in Lagos and arranged for teachers to stay there.”