Emília is a 93 year old woman. She lost her eye-sight ten years ago and relies on Nelita for her daily food and help with chores. “I was born here and I raised three boys in this small apartment, this is all I know. If I am evicted, how will I survive on my own in another place?” asks Emília. November, 2019

Clothes are hung out to dry at a squat in Lisbon. Close to 10 people live in this abandoned structure.

A house is demolished in Quinta da Laje, a slum in Lisbon's suburbs. June, 2019

A man takes things out of his home in Quinta de Santo António. He was a part of a group of 30 people that were occupying these abandoned homes and were evicted by Lisbon’s City Hall.

25th of November 2019

Maria Pereira’s eldest son (left) looks on as a moving crew takes her things from the wharehouse where the landlord dumped her things. After visiting her son in Luxemburg, the 78 year old Maria Pereira found the lock on the door of her home changed. She lived on the streets for two weeks during the harsh winter. Graça, Lisbon

Emilia Raposo, 94 poses for a portrait in her bedroom in the Santos Lima building. “I was born here and I raised three boys in this small apartment, this is all I know. If I am evicted, how will I survive on my own in another place?” asks Emília, a 94 year old woman who suffers from blindness.

9th of January 2020

Workers for LX Living, a multi-million euro luxury real-estate project by South African investors, finish demolishing a former low income neighbourhood in Campolide, Lisbon.

8th of December 2019

Fabiana (left) plays with her friends on a sunday afternoon in Zona J, Lisbon.

Her mother, Edna, has been squatting in an abandoned apartment in this neighbourhood for almost 4 years.

4th of March 2020

Helena's daughter in law (center) holds her newborn baby at the basement in Amadora, Lisbon the family has been living in since their home was demolished. Before coming here, Helena's family was out of choices. After the home she built in Lisbon's 6 de Maio neighbourhood was demolished, they had nowhere to go.

For a while they slept in a garage, but that proved too difficult to bear for a family with 4 small children. For almost a year they have been paying a small rent for a one bedroom basement, where it rains.

23rd of October 2019

A portrait of Helena (middle) when the family was experiencing better times at the derelict basement in Amadora, Lisbon where they are currently staying in.

In 2018, Helena's family was out of choices. After the home she built in Lisbon's 6 de Maio neighbourhood was demolished, they had nowhere to go. For a while they slept in a garage, but that proved too difficult to bear for a family with 4 small children. For almost a year they have been paying a small rent for a one bedroom basement, where it rains.

“Most days I don’t even have the appetite to eat. This uncertainty ruins a person’s health” said Nelita.

In the former industrial hub of Marvila, the Santos Lima building was sold for 2.4 million euros in 2017, and put up for sale a few months after for triple as much. For investors, it was a great bargain. This “abandoned” building, as it was advertised, could easily become a hotel, a much needed service in this rapidly gentrifying and hip neighbourhood. The only problem was that it was in fact home to 14 families, some of which had lived there, and paid rent, for almost a century.

5th of May 2020

Naíde, 16, and Wilson, 23, were evicted in 2019 from the apartment they were squatting in Lisbon and have since been living in this improvised shelter in the Bensaúde Neighborhood in Lisbon.

10th of January 2019

With the goal of bullying the tenants into leaving, the companies who own Santos Lima building in Marvila, Lisbon, hired a construction crew to wreck the unoccupied apartments in the building.

Nelita’s granddaughter at her home in the Santos Lima building. “I raised them myself, and although they are still young, they are beginning to understand what is happening in the building” she said.

12th of October 2019

Fabiana watches TV at her occupied apartment in Zona J, Lisbon. According to housing rights activists, there are hundreds of families, many single mothers, with no other option than to occupy abandoned apartments.

20th of February 2020

Dam, 40, poses for a portrait at the home she is squatting in Bela Vista, Lisbon.

Two years ago, she found an abandoned government apartment in Lisbon where her bed-ridden mother could have her own room, and the family would be able to start a better life. They were living in a one bedroom apartment that took 70% of her minimum wage salary.

“The house has no windows, so the blinds need to be down all the time. It gets bad especially in the winter, its hard, mainly for my mother. But it is for her that I keep on fighting” says Dam.

20th of May 2019

An abandoned apartment in the Santos Lima building in Marvila, Lisbon. In 2018 alone, housing prices have gone up by 80% in this area.

Leandro (left) and Vanessa (right) pose for a portrait with their cousin-. They were evicted in late 2019 from the house they were squatting in Lisbon. They are currently sleeping with their one year old son in a makeshift tent. "If before things were difficult, now with this virus, it is much harder. We can't wash our hands, and we have nowhere to go to the bathroom" says Vanessa.

9th of January 2020

The view from Joana Ferreira's home in Lisbon.

They have been occupying this home for more than a year, because they cannot afford housing in the private market.

9th of January 2020

Joana, 36, (center)has been squatting this apartment with her five children, and two small grandchildren for more than a year.

She occupied the empty apartment a year ago, because she couldn't find an affordable home in Lisbon. She fled Spain and the beatings by her former husband. For five years she has been on waiting lists for social housing, but her requests have never been granted.

21st of July 2020

José, 53 and Marta, 26 get ready for their first night at the house they are squatting in Graça, Lisbon. Marta lost her job in March, as the pandemic reached Portugal.

29th of May 2019

A couple have dinner at an occupied house in Lisbon after the police cut the power.

Danilson (left) and Rebeca (right), worked as a security guard and restaurant server. Struggling to pay rent in an increasingly gentrified city , they occupied this abandoned home in Lisbon. In June 2019 they were evicted and the neighborhood demolished.

24th of September 2019

Maria Pereira, 78, gets ready for another sleepless night in Gare do Oriente, Lisbon. She was put out on the streets by her landlord, who changed the lock on her door. For two weeks she was sleeping in Lisbon's streets and is still waiting for the courts to solve her issue.

10th of March 2020

During the global Coronavirus outbreak, Lisbon's city hall evicted 13 families from the apartments they were squatting in Alfredo Bensaúde.

10th of December 2019

Cota Lopes, as he is known, is a former construction worker from Angola. He got injured at a construction site, and has since fallen on the path of homelessness, spending the nights at a city shelters and days at this derelict Auto Garage.