The squatters who lived in the old Senator apartments in Costa Teguise began to vacate the complex this Wednesday, although some of them have moved to a house in Tahíche owned by the Association of Relatives of Alzheimer's Patients (AFA), where it plans to open a new center.
"It was something predictable. Logically, all those people who were in the Senator have had to look for a location elsewhere," said the Councilor for Police of the Teguise City Council, Miguel Ángel Jiménez, who, however, stated that the State security forces already have this house "controlled" and that they have also been "in contact with the owners so that they can carry out the appropriate procedures" to evict them.
"Now there must be vigilance and consistency and work by both the Civil Guard and the Local Police, which I know they are doing, not since yesterday, but since the day before yesterday," said the mayor, who hopes that the situation "does not increase."
The Councilor for Police of Teguise has still celebrated the eviction of the Senator. "I don't know if it's 100%, but most of them are out and that was very important news for me last night, because it was a demand from the neighbors and many times we found ourselves powerless to solve it," said Miguel Ángel Jiménez, who believes that "the important thing is that the people in the Senator area began to recover the tranquility they had lost yesterday" "And that is what we should be happy and applaud today, because those people did not deserve to live the martyrdom they have been living for so many years," he said.
A possible agreement between the property and the squatters
Regarding the reasons that could be hidden behind the eviction of the Senator, Jiménez has pointed out that there is a "rumor on the street that the property has reached an agreement with the tenants", for which they would have paid them "about 1,500 euros" to leave. "But that is something that escapes the hands of the City Council and we neither enter nor leave there," he specified.
Now, according to the Councilor for Police of Teguise, the Senator apartments will be walled up to prevent the squatters from taking it again. "There is a permit from the City Council to wall up the apartments and from what they have told us, they will begin with the project to present it to the City Council and change the area as soon as possible," he said in this regard.
"Most of the Senator squatters have their own home"
The mayor has also maintained that although there are "people in need on the island and that is not hidden from anyone", the "majority" of the squatters inside the Senator "have their own home". "What happens is that with the boom that has occurred with respect to vacation homes, they have seen the business of the century and have decided to go live in someone else's home, usurping a home that was not theirs and putting theirs in business. And the sad thing is that there are people in need who do need a hand from the institutions, especially from the Government of the Canary Islands, which is the one that has the power and the competences when it comes to building social housing."
In this sense, Miguel Ángel Jiménez has affirmed that "the City Council has always lent a hand". "And the proof is that within the employment plans that the City Council has carried out in this time, there have been people who lived in the Senator. People who have presented their documentation and who by law are entitled to it and have worked in the employment plans," explained the mayor, who pointed out that, apart from that, he knows that Social Services "has been helping those people in need, especially with children."
