The Platform for Dignified Housing of Lanzarote has denounced to the Canary Islands Housing Institute, the Deputy of the Common and the City Council of Arrecife the situation of "helplessness" and "uprooting" suffered by Juan Tenería, a neighbor in a wheelchair who was evicted from a garage in which he lived in Arrecife and relocated by the Government of the Canary Islands in an "inaccessible" official protection home, located on the "top of a hill", and in Fuerteventura.
"Instead of a solution, they have given him a nightmare. It would have been better if they had not given him anything, because what they have given him is more bad than good," said Olga Martínez and Francesca Baldassari, members of the Platform for Dignified Housing of Lanzarote, who have offered a press conference to announce that they have registered writings before the three institutions demanding that the "serious negligence" that has been committed with Juan be corrected.
"And we do not need an answer for next year, but for tomorrow, because the health of this man, day by day, is deteriorating," added the representatives of the group, who have stated that Juan, who suffers from a disability of 87%, was hospitalized last night for "serious health problems as a result of the situation in which he finds himself." "Because he is in a lot of pain," they said.
A home that "does not meet the minimum adaptation requirements"
According to what they have denounced, the house in which Juan Tenería was relocated in Fuerteventura "does not meet the minimum adaptation requirements" for a person with his disability, since in addition to being located "on top of a hill", it is located "two kilometers from the town" with all the necessary services such as the City Council, supermarket, the health center or the bus stop "far away".
"Today he needed to go look for the medicines that he has been prescribed in the hospital and he does not find himself with the strength or desire to go down because going down two kilometers downhill and then going up them, whoever believes that he can, let him sit in a wheelchair and try it," they have pointed out from the Platform for Dignified Housing.
Likewise, the group has denounced that the house, despite being a ground floor, "has a step at the entrance" and that Juan "cannot access the bedroom with the wheelchair", so he has to "leave the wheelchair at the entrance" and "crawl through the room". "And leave the wheelchair at the entrance if he gets a neighbor to put it in the house, because in principle he has to leave it outside," added Olga Martínez and Francesca Baldassari.
The apartment was given to him "without water and electricity supply"
In addition, the Platform for Dignified Housing of Lanzarote has stated that Juan Tenería was given the apartment after signing a rental contract "without water and electricity supply", a situation that they have pointed out was not resolved until after 10 days.
"This is illegal, and if a private individual does it, we would denounce it, but for the Canary Housing Service to do it seems absurd to us, nonsense," they have pointed out from the group, from where they have also assured that the house "was in unacceptable conditions of dirt." In addition, the group has denounced that in the process of transferring Juan to Fuerteventura "he was not offered any transport or help for the transfer", a fact that they also consider a "serious negligence".
"We are very concerned about his health condition, because he cannot continue to be in a house that is not adapted, in a place that is not adapted. He is doing a physical overload that his state of health does not allow," they have pointed out from the Platform for Dignified Housing.
Juan's "uprooting": "In Fuerteventura he is now alone"
The group has also stressed the "uprooting" that it has meant for Juan to have to leave Lanzarote. "Emotionally it was a blow for him because he had to leave friendships. And he needs a social support network, of friends. For him the help of his acquaintances is important and in Fuerteventura he is now alone," they have added from the Platform for Dignified Housing, from which, however, they have highlighted the help that Juan has received from some neighbors on the island of Majorera.
"We need him to be relocated as soon as possible. And to those who ask why he went to Fuerteventura, it is because in Lanzarote we are very up to date and we do not have any place for an emergency. We do have hotels, but for people with short legs we have nothing," they have pointed out.
"The real condition of the house was hidden from him"
In the writings presented to the institutions this Tuesday, the Platform for Dignified Housing highlights that it was "thanks to the pressure received" by this group that Juan Tenería "received the contract for an official protection home in Fuerteventura".
However, they recall that it was not achieved until "the day before the eviction" and after this neighbor was also hospitalized on dates close to it at the Molina Orosa Hospital for pneumonia, despite the fact that they claim that Juan registered as a public housing applicant at the Canary Islands Housing Institute seven months earlier and that the Arrecife City Council was also "informed since April".
"At all times the real condition of the house was hidden from Juan," denounces the Platform for Dignified Housing, which, in the case of the Arrecife City Council, considers that the Department of Social Services "failed to act as an intermediary with the Housing Department of the Government of the Canary Islands to find an urgent housing solution" for Juan.
Thus, it now requests both the director of the Canary Islands Housing Institute, María Isabel Santana, and the Councilor for Social Services of Arrecife, María Jesús Tovar, to "not refrain from their responsibilities in this shared mismanagement".
