The Social Services of the Arrecife City Council have attended to 60 eviction cases in the last two months, which is an average of one eviction per day. This was revealed by the councilor responsible for the area, María Jesús Tovar, who states that it is not true that evictions have been halted during the pandemic.
"When there were none was during the lockdown, but afterwards it started," the councilor pointed out, who assures that in the City Council they are attending to families for evictions "almost every day." "Maybe one day two arrive, another three, another one and another none, but they have not been stopped, they are following their course," she said.
And, although the central government decreed the suspension of evictions during the state of alarm and has now just extended it until August, the measure does not cover all cases and includes exceptions. One of them is that the owner of the property is in a vulnerable situation. In addition, for the eviction to be stopped, the tenant must also prove that they meet the requirements.
To attend to the large volume of evictions that are being registered in Arrecife, the City Council has "a multidisciplinary team of social workers and a social educator," who for about two months "are only assigned to people with evictions," to "be able to interview them and make the vulnerability report."
However, while before the pandemic this report was made "only to the tenant," now it is being made "to both." And, as María Jesús Tovar has specified, there are cases of "owners who live off rents" and who "are now finding themselves in a vulnerable situation for not receiving the rent money."
In the event that the tenant is in a vulnerable situation, the Councilor for Social Services of Arrecife affirms that it can be achieved that the eviction is suspended for "a month or two," but assures that "in the end the eviction continues."
Demands a social rental plan
"We are trying to help there, but there is a very big housing problem in Arrecife. We have gone 26 years without building social housing," she added.
In this sense, although she has celebrated that the Government of the Canary Islands is going to build 200 official protection homes in Maneje, on land ceded by the City Council, and that Visocan is going to acquire 14 unfinished homes in the capital to allocate them to the most vulnerable families, she has pointed out that "they are not short-term measures." "And we from Social Services are giving aid, but they are not eternal and there are many people," she pointed out.
Thus, she believes that the Housing Department of the Government of the Canary Islands, which "are the ones who have the competence," should launch "something more solid," such as "a social rental plan." "Even that they reach agreements with the banks, which have many homes. Many citizens have requested it from me, that please agreements be reached with the banks for these social rentals, which have many closed houses, and I see a very good way there," she indicated.
"Many" cuts in water and electricity
In addition to the eviction cases, in the Arrecife City Council they are also attending since "about two weeks" to "many" citizens who are registering "cuts in water and electricity," due to "the bills from when we were confined."
"The electricity and water companies have started to pass the bills and we have suddenly found families without electricity or water," the councilor pointed out, explaining that in these cases an aid is processed "urgently" to the families "so that they can pay."
