The Socialist Party (PSOE), through its parliamentarian for Lanzarote and La Graciosa, Marcos Bergaz, demanded this Tuesday that the Government of the Canary Islands apply urgent processing to all files related to public housing and called for an immediate rectification of the criteria being applied by Visocan, the public company dependent on the regional Executive.
During a question posed in the Plenary Session of the Parliament to the Minister of Public Works, Housing and Mobility, Pablo Rodríguez (CC), Bergaz recalled that the head of the department himself recently acknowledged in a parliamentary commission that it was a mistake not to process the tender for the drafting of the project for nearly 200 protected homes in the Maneje neighborhood, in Lanzarote, on an urgent basis.
“Indeed, in this case, it was not processed urgently. I hope it does not happen again,” Bergaz quoted, recalling the words spoken by the minister before the Chamber.
The socialist parliamentarian denounced that, far from being corrected, that situation seems to have consolidated, “the mistake has become the norm, the usual criterion within Visocan,” one of the Government’s main instruments for promoting public housing construction along with the Canary Islands Housing Institute (ICAVI).
Bergaz maintained that "there are more than sufficient reasons to apply administrative urgency to all files related to housing in our archipelago."
Firstly, due to the serious situation of the residential market in the Canary Islands, where the price of new housing is growing at a rate of 12% annually, the highest in the country, while rents have accumulated years of continuous increases.
Likewise, he recalled that "housing has become the main concern of the Canary Islands' citizens" and that the regional government itself has declared the housing emergency as one of the five current emergencies in this legislature.
Added to this, he pointed out, is the legislation approved by the Executive itself. Specifically, the Decree-Law on urgent measures in housing matters establishes in its article 25 the urgent processing of administrative procedures related to this matter, precisely to accelerate the public response to the housing crisis.
“The Government has on its side the Public Sector Contracts Law, the declaration of housing emergency, the Decree Law itself that it approved and, above all, thousands of families who are waiting for public housing or who are allocating a disproportionate part of their income to pay rent,” he stated.
In the case of Lanzarote, he recalled that more than 3,000 people remain registered in the Public Register of Applicants for Protected Housing in the Canary Islands, a figure that demonstrates the magnitude of the housing problem on the island.
“With the situation that thousands of Canarian families are experiencing, we cannot afford to lose a single day. Rectify, not to agree with this political group, but for those who suffer every day the drama of not being able to access decent housing or are forced to pay exorbitant prices for a roof under which to develop their life project,” he concluded.