The situation of the military houses located within the airport grounds can be described as abandonment. Faced with the problem, Luis Rego, a tenant of these houses who is currently a civilian although until last year worked as a military man, has denounced the state that characterizes the area. In this way, Luis Rego has stood as a spokesman for a complaint from all the neighbors "because I have freedom of expression, unlike the military who are afraid of retaliation."
The problem faced by the tenants of these houses is the following. The houses belong to the Ministry of Defense. However, the declaration of General Interest of the Lanzarote airport has recently been published in the Official State Gazette. This means that in order to develop the works planned in the Master Plan of the air base, it is necessary to de-affect the area, that is, to declare that this public domain asset is disassociated from its use. In this way, the houses would become the property of the Ministry of Development, on which Aena depends. The impression of the neighbors, according to Luis Rego, is that in a certain way they are forced to leave at any price without taking care of the maintenance "that by law corresponds to them".
Consequences
Although the ownership of these houses belongs to the Ministry of Defense, since 2001 the National Institute of Housing of the Armed Forces has been responsible for their management, administration and maintenance. However, since then the situation has worsened and has even worsened in the last two years. This has meant that the neighbors face problems such as the non-collection of garbage or street lighting that does not work, so that during the nights the entire area is left in the dark. Or they have encountered situations as unpleasant as the one Luis Rego experienced three years ago when he had to file a criminal complaint when they could not use the water in his house "because the drainage system was broken." Fortunately they were able to fix it with a small infrastructure but they think "that nobody wants to assume the responsibilities."
These are some of the situations faced by the eight families who still live in the place, since the rest of the eight houses are unoccupied. For this reason, they ask for a solution to this problem that does not allow them to lead a life with the usual comforts of any home.
