A small city has been growing for years in plot 214 of Costa Teguise, where dozens of substandard homes that had been abandoned since 2005 have served nearly ninety families to shelter themselves from the housing crisis that plagues Lanzarote.
While advances in the courts the eviction process of the families initiated in 2023 by the entity Toscolanz SL, a company dedicated to real estate development and based in Arrecife, to carry out the luxury hotel complex Body, Mind & Health Hotel, the Teguise City Council and the neighbors who occupy the plot have agreed to initiate a cleaning process. The plot has been full of rubble and trash for years.
The mayor of Teguise, Olivia Duque, stated this Thursday morning on Radio Lanzarote-Onda Cero that after receiving reports from the Social Services Area alerting of the unhealthiness of the area and the property's complaint about the discharge of black water in the space, they decided to agree with the families on an action and cleaning plan.
"I asked the Local Police and the Health technician for updated reports and we started to work together", highlighted Olivia Duque during her radio intervention.
The council has announced that it has made available to residents the trays to remove the debris and that it is the citizens themselves who are in charge of filling them and separating the materials. "They have complied in an important way," the municipal leader has indicated.
"It is evident that rents are through the roof and that even if people have a salary, it is impossible to pay rent and live," added Duque, who highlighted the families' predisposition to keep the area clean. "We have already spoken, they have even written a letter so that it doesn't happen again," he added.
Meanwhile, the Teguise City Council has issued the legal report on the hotel license requested by the property three years ago. "Once it is granted, they will have the license for the project they submitted," Duque assured. For the moment, the mayor has indicated that the possibility of the property and the tenants reaching an out-of-court settlement is being considered.
A Court annulled on October 31, 2005 the license for plot 214. After that, the High Court of Justice of the Canary Islands required the council to identify the company responsible for complying with the judicial order and demolishing the concrete skeletons built on the plot.
After decades of inaction by the Teguise City Council, in November 2022, the then head of Urban Planning of the City Council, Olivia Duque (Canarian Coalition), current mayor of the municipality, reported that the property owner had refused to comply with the demolition request and that the council would initiate "the pertinent actions to undertake it" on its own. This decision was carried out after the Court threatened the then mayor of Teguise Oswaldo Betancort (CC) and current island president with "fines against his personal assets" worth up to 1,500 euros. Then what was built was never demolished.
