It should have been built by the end of this year, but it is far from it. That is the reality of the home for the elderly, dependent and socially excluded that the Franciscan order Cruz Blanca intends to launch on the island. A building whose first stone was laid more than two years ago, but which is currently stopped due to lack of funding to complete it.
The idea for this project was born in 1989, although it did not take shape until 2000, when the Amigos de Cruz Blanca de Lanzarote association was established as such. Initially it was going to be a residence for terminally ill HIV/AIDS patients but, according to its president Francis Martín, it was decided to change the idea to respond to the needs of the elderly on the island. "We realized at that time that AIDS patients were being cared for, thank God, while there was a lack in relation to the elderly," he says.
And that is how this project took shape, which in April 2009 saw its first stone laid, on a plot located at Calle San Juan de la Cruz number 1 in the Arrecife neighborhood of Altavista, which had been ceded by Librada Díaz Suárez to the Bishopric of Las Palmas and which the latter ceded to the Franciscan brothers in March 2008.
In this way, and after obtaining the building permit, work began in August 2009 but, due to lack of funding, had to stop in December 2010. In those months, there was hardly any time to do anything. "The land is now all open, like a swimming pool, with a concrete wall and it is a danger," says Martín.
"Unfulfilled" commitments
In 2009, the Government of the Canary Islands allocated an economic item of 750,000 euros from its budgets to this project and pledged to finance 100 percent of the residence from 2010. However, Franci Martín assures that that money and that commitment "never arrived" and that in those two years they only received "about 500,000 euros." This money was used to cover part of the drafting of the project, as well as for the earthworks and the excavation of the future garage of the building. The construction of the building also began with these subsidies, carrying out a large part of its foundations and the retaining walls that make up the garage.
The Casa Hermano Isidoro, as this home for the elderly is planned to be called, also received contributions from the Cabildo and the Arrecife City Council. "The Cabildo only allocated 20,000 euros, but for equipment when it was not even built," says Martín. However, although Cruz Blanca assures that they did not receive more money from the first institution, the then Minister of Social Services of the Cabildo, Joaquín Caraballo, affirms that in the budgets of 2008 and 2009 subsidies were also given to this organization of "between 30,000 and 50,000 euros", despite the fact that it was the Ministry of Social Welfare of the Government of the Canary Islands, who "pledged to finance the project".
On the other hand, the Arrecife City Council has contributed a total of 38,000 euros, in addition to other amounts for the drafting of the project and the license, as well as a technical architect from the City Council, among other measures. "It is the only institution that has complied," says Francis Martín.
To all this must be added that at the time of laying the first stone it was said that the initiative would require just over 6 million euros to carry it out, but this figure later increased to 9 million euros. "We did not yet have the final resolution of the work and then there were a series of amendments that caused it to increase to 9 million," explains Francis Martín.
In any case, "the lack of continuity in the financing of the project through some multi-year agreement taking into account its size", makes it impossible, for the moment, to see a near future in relation to the construction of this center, although Francis Martín does not lose hope. "I am sure that it will be done, because as long as we have the strength we will continue. The ship has already set sail and if I do not see it, someone will take it to port", he concludes.
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