The Cabildo of Lanzarote and the Yaiza City Council have temporarily relocated 22 of the 99 people evicted this Tuesday in Playa Blanca. This was announced by the council through a press release.
The mayor of Yaiza, Óscar Noda, and the councilor of Social Services, Karina Centeno, had proposed different alternatives, including the Yaiza Environment House, the residence of the Fishing School located in Arrecife, or the La Santa hostel. Finally, it was agreed with the Cabildo of Lanzarote that the best prepared place was the hostel of the Máguez Nature Classroom, proposed by the Department of Social Welfare of the Cabildo as a "temporary housing solution" for 22 of the evicted people.
The objective of this temporary relocation is to "avoid situations of vulnerability for those especially vulnerable people", according to the municipal Executive.
Thus, the City Council committed to offer the transportation service for the transfer of the affected people to Máguez and also the daily transportation of the minors enrolled in the municipality of Yaiza to guarantee the continuity of their classes.
The council has indicated that the municipal report, in which the Court of Instruction number four of Arrecife was supported to proceed with the eviction, "warned at the time" of the presence of vulnerable families in homes with children, people with disabilities, five pregnant women, elderly people and even a cancer patient. At the same time, it has added that "there were already requests registered in the City Council by the affected people of the eviction asking for a vulnerability report".
"Exorbitant prices" in Lanzarote
In this same press release, the Yaiza City Council has highlighted that the competences in matters of Housing belong to the Autonomous Community of the Canary Islands, as stated in Law 2/2003, of January 30, on Housing of the Canary Islands in its seventh article.
"This fact is indisputable, so the City Council, due to lack of competences, has little room for action in a matter as sensitive as it is difficult to solve due to the scarcity of rental housing and its exorbitant prices in Lanzarote," he reported.
Thus, he pointed out that "these are determining factors that hinder the search for immediate housing solutions for the affected people, in fact, the government of Yaiza inquired among large property owners to address the rental of properties through the emergency route and it was not possible, because even there are evicted people who claimed to be able to pay a rent".
For its part, he added that since October he requested collaboration from the Canarian Housing Institute (ICAVI) and also from the Cabildo of Lanzarote, specifically, Yaiza requested assistance from the First Island Corporation to relocate the families provisionally while they had another alternative roof. The Canarian Housing Institute confirmed that within the Pro-hogar program "it did not have a housing alternative alleging the lack of social vulnerability reports, which of course were sent".
Vulnerability reports sent to the Cabildo and the ICAVI
In addition, he has defended that Yaiza sent an additional report on four specific families requested by the ICAVI. While the Cabildo for its part stated in November that it would assess how to intervene, such as the payment of rents, but "warning of the difficulty because most of the people who have requested a vulnerability report are in an irregular administrative situation".
The Yaiza council has added that the Cabildo "did request information on the number of families with dependent children and other socioeconomic assessments that the City Council complied with sending". Meanwhile, Yaiza has also reported that it managed "food aid and economic aid, social reports for school scholarships and referral reports to the Cabildo of Lanzarote and Cáritas".
Lack of social housing in Yaiza
However, he has insisted that despite the efforts from the Social Services area of the City Council it is "clear competence of the Government of the Canary Islands, therefore, without a relevant delegation, Yaiza cannot act in matters of housing".
Finally, the mayor, Óscar Noda, on behalf of the Institution, has valued the work of the technicians and all the staff of Social Services "for their diligence in the attention of this situation and all the actions inherent to the area".
While he has recalled that the City Council already ceded a plot of 42,000 square meters to the Canarian Housing Institute for the construction of social housing in Playa Blanca. The City Council hopes that the ICAVI will tender the drafting of the project to execute the first 126 homes destined for the social rental market. Apart from this, the City Council proposed to the Government of the Canary Islands the purchase of homes in an urbanization of Playa Blanca as a "quick and effective measure to alleviate a structural problem" of the Canary Islands and the country increased by the large number of properties that are part of the vacation market.