A couple with four children and no income living in a squat in Arrecife and a woman who is unemployed and on medical leave earning less than 300 reportedly have been asking institutions for help for weeks without being heard.
"We have been asking for help for a month," says Tamara Maya, who claims to have turned to both the Arrecife City Council and the Red Cross and Cáritas. "I'm calling every day and all they tell me is that they will call us," says this woman.
"When are they going to give the aid? When will all this pass?" asks Fausía Abdeselam, who in her case claims that she called the Arrecife City Council "23 days ago" to request emergency social assistance and that she has not received a response either. In addition, she also claims to have called the Cabildo to request advice on processing rental aid, but that it is not yet being granted.
"We are without work, without money, and we cannot leave"
In the case of Tamara, she relates that she arrived in Lanzarote from Toledo with her husband and her four children aged 10, 15, 19 and 23 last January in search of work, after relatives living on the island recommended it to her.
However, she claims that as soon as they arrived they were victims of a scam, although they did not report it "out of fear". "We paid a deposit of 150 euros for the rent of a house but, when we arrived here, the man did not appear and kept the money," she says.
After that, she claims that they had to stay in hotels on the island "for a month", spending the little money they had arrived on the island with. "We spent about 700 or 800 euros," says Tamara, who also claims that her husband and children failed to find work and she only found a temporary one for which she charged 160 euros.
"We couldn't live on that money," says Tamara, who explains that for this reason they decided to occupy a house in Arrecife in February, although with the intention of returning to the Peninsula. "But first there were no tickets and then they were very expensive and we had no money," she adds.
Thus, when the state of alarm was declared, this family was also trapped in Lanzarote. "We are in a squat, without work, without money, and we cannot leave," says Tamara. "And today is my son's birthday, who is 15 years old, and I can't even buy him a cake," this woman laments, who claims that if they eat it is thanks to a neighbor, also in a vulnerable situation, who receives food from an association and gives them some, and some food that the relatives they have on the island give them. "But they are not in a good situation either," she adds
"They take my data and never call me"
"I am desperate," says Fausía, a 57-year-old woman who, this month, has only had 269 euros of income. "I don't even have enough to pay the rent, which is 425," says this resident of Arrecife, who tells how her economic situation has been aggravated.
In her case, she claims that she has been on medical leave since January but that, at that time, she was receiving 650 euros of unemployment benefit. However, this ended at the end of February. "Then I went to Social Security, which I am waiting for a medical tribunal to see me, and they made that payment that does not reach 300 euros," she says.
For this reason, Fausía says that she decided to turn to the institutions to ask for help. "Because I have two older children, but one is unemployed and the other has been sent to an ERTE, so they are not in a position to help me," says Fausía, who the first thing she did was call the Arrecife City Council.
"I have been calling for 23 days, since they announced the emergency social aid, but they take my data and never call me," says this woman, who also complains that when she calls they tell her "to be patient." "Do they think one calls for pleasure," she adds.
In addition, Fausía claims that this week she turned to the advisory service launched by the Cabildo to find out about the processing of rental aid announced by the central government. "And first, it turns out that the telephone number they had given was for Consumer Affairs, that they had made a mistake," says this resident of Arrecife, who says that she finally managed to contact by Whatsapp, but that they told her that "she had to wait", because "they still did not know how they were going to process it".
"How can they say that they are going to give aid and then they are not giving it?" questions Fausía. "And then let's see how I send the papers, because I don't have a computer. Don't they think about it? Don't they think that not everyone knows how to do it", adds this woman who complains that, during the state of alarm situation, only the processing of documentation is allowed electronically.
