A resident of Arrecife began a protest this Monday at 08:30 in front of the Town Hall of the municipality to request a solution to the housing problem that is suffered in the city and that she herself is suffering, after she has been notified as final a eviction order for June 2. Gabriela lives with her mother, a person with a disability, who is in a wheelchair and is totally dependent, and with her student daughter, as explained to La Voz by the councilor of Ganemos Lanzarote in Arrecife, Leticia Padilla, who is with her in front of the Consistory.
"She requests that the mayor of the City Council negotiate with the banks to put some empty houses on the market for social rent, that they negotiate or subsidize the owners who have empty houses also to put them on the long-term rental market and that they punish the banks that have closed houses", Padilla pointed out. The councilor, who has followed the case of this woman, has pointed out that "right now it is not that there are no houses in Arrecife, but the problem is that they are not in the long-term rental market and the few that are are in vacation rental".
Leticia Padilla has pointed out that before making this decision the woman "has been in all the social services, City Council and Cabildo" and "there was no way that anyone could find a solution to her problem". "She is here now and is going to stay until they find a solution to her problem, hers and that of many, because she refuses to live as a squatter in a house, she does not want to become illegal and what she is looking for is a solution", stressed the councilor of Ganemos.
Regarding the house from which they are going to evict her, Padilla has assured that at first she tried to reach an agreement with the owner, "but the owner wants to recover her apartment with all the right in the world, because it is her property." In addition, she wanted to emphasize that "she earns 720 euros per month", so "it is not a problem of money" because she could pay a rent, but what "happens is that what is being asked right now for rents is impossible".