Rumors run from house to house in an unfinished and occupied urbanization of El Faro de Pechiguera in the town of Playa Blanca. More than 60 families live in it who, driven by the lack of housing, have relocated to this promotion for two years. On January 4, the National Police delivered a judicial summons to some of its occupants, summoning them to attend an oral trial, accused of having committed an alleged minor crime of usurpation.
In this judicial document that La Voz has been able to access, the Investigating Court number 2 of Arrecife attends to a complaint filed by the owner of the land, the company Coral Homes SL, who accuses them of occupying a property on Austria Street. However, this space is more than just a farm. It is an unfinished housing development that has been abandoned for almost 20 years.
The construction of the houses they occupy was stopped in 2006 as it was planned in the surroundings of the Pechiguera Lighthouse, a 19th century lighthouse declared as an Asset of Cultural Interest. The developer, the real estate company Inversur Lanzarote SL tried to eliminate the protection measures of this element and continue with the works, but the Justice dismissed the case.
Jaime Andrés has lived in the Faro de Pechiguera complex for two years. He is a native of Colombia and has his legal residence in Spain, he works as a delivery man and his wife as a kitchen assistant in a hotel in Playa Blanca. Before moving to Lanzarote, he lived with his partner in the Peninsula, but they moved to the island for work. "In the Peninsula we lived in a house where we paid 700 euros of rent, plus 200 extra for supplies, we thought it would be the same here, but we discovered that it was impossible," he confesses.
When they arrived on the island they began to rent rooms in shared apartments. However, the lack of options led them to come across the reality of residing in concrete skeletons raised in the tourist town. "We came to the lighthouse one day to think and we saw these works and decided to come here," he explains.
That reality, with the lack of possibilities to rent, is repeated in all the residents in the abandoned complex. In addition, in most cases the residents in this town are workers of the hotels, villas or vacation homes of Playa Blanca.
Rehabilitation of the houses
"They were not houses, there were only blocks, this was full of garbage and we had no doors or windows, no water or electricity," the neighbors narrate, finishing each other's sentences. The houses also did not have a pipe channeling system, so they opted to make individual septic tanks for each property, covered with rofe to reduce leaks.
"We pay for our own water. It's not like they say out there," says another resident indignantly. In some of the houses the water tanks stand out that each house is responsible for refilling monthly. In other cases, the unfinished swimming pools in the promotion have served the occupants to supply water to the properties. "We use the swimming pools as cisterns," explains one of them. For each refill of water, which usually lasts a month, they pay 105 euros.
The same goes for electricity. While some of them explain that the houses closest to the road already had the electrical wiring, others have installed solar panels to be able to self-supply and have obtained butane gas cylinders to be able to cook. In the case of the last people who arrived, they had to install even the roofs of the houses, with wood brought from Arrecife. "I have invested more than 3,000 euros only in the roof", narrates a young man who lives with his girlfriend and his two-year-old son in one of the properties.
All the neighbors interviewed agree on the difficulties to find a rent on the island. "It's not that there are few, it's that there are none," they narrate. The economic requirements to access a home in Lanzarote raises the entry money to rent above 2,000 euros, to which must be added that in most cases, two payrolls are insufficient to meet the rental requirements demanded, where it is requested that the price of the rent is 35% of the salary.
To all this, we must add the racist component with which some of the residents have taken. "Once we had everything agreed to rent and when he found out that we were all Colombians they told me: I don't rent to Colombians."
Meanwhile, the residents ask the company Coral Homes SL, which belongs to the American fund Lone Star and Caixa Bank and which owns the real estate company Servihabitat Servicios Inmobiliarios SLU, to reach an agreement to be able to buy or rent the houses and not have to be on the street with more than 40 children (according to figures offered by the residents).
For the moment, the neighbors narrate that the only relationship they have had with the City Council of Yaiza has been the installation of garbage containers at the time they settled in the place.
