The Minister of Social Welfare, Youth and Housing of the Government of the Canary Islands, Inés Rojas, presided this Monday over the signing of deeds by which a total of 37 families have obtained ownership of the home in which they had been residing until now under a rental regime, taking advantage of the different formulas and regulations approved by the Government of the Canary Islands to promote this process of formalizing ownership.
The families, belonging to the group of 50 protected homes located in Puerto del Carmen, have obtained the deeds to their homes for an average value of 8,000 euros, after deducting government subsidies and the fees they have paid as rent in recent years.
The Canarian head of Housing, Inés Rojas, stated during the event that "just like these 37 families who are signing today in Lanzarote, in these last four years a total of 4,408 Canarian families have become owners of the protected homes in which they lived under a rental regime and receiving unique aid throughout the State".
"The Canary Islands understands that the policy of access to housing is a social policy, a necessary way to promote the integration into society of families with the most difficulties, those who do not exceed 12,000 euros of annual income and who in the islands can have homes built directly by the Government paying rents adapted to their income ranging from two and four euros per month, when the situation is very precarious," said Rojas.
As they are intended for families with low incomes, the cost of renting these homes is subsidized by the Government of the Canary Islands in a percentage that adapts to the particular economic and family conditions of each awardee, covering up to 99 percent of the monthly fee.
Currently, the Government has a public park of 1,055 protected homes on the island, of which more than 50 percent have already become the property of the families who received them under a rental regime.
The 50 homes in Puerto del Carmen were awarded in June 1988 to families with an approximate value of 17,287.75 euros, so, taking into account the subsidy from the Government of the Canary Islands of 50 percent of the total, the value of the 72 square meter home was set at 8,643.87 euros. Families will be able to pay this amount in cash or in installments of 5, 10, 15, 20 and 25 years, deducting the amount that the awardees have paid as rent.
Rehabilitation of 60 homes in Tías
The Minister also announced that next April the Government of the Canary Islands will begin the rehabilitation of the roofs and facades of the group of 60 homes in Los Lirios, also in the municipality of Tías, in which it will invest 270,000 euros. Specifically, the existing waterproofing will be demolished, the exposed tiling will be repaired and new waterproofing will be installed. As for the facades, the paint will be removed, the plaster will be repaired, the windows will be sanded and new coats of paint will be applied to both the facade and the windows.
The Government of the Canary Islands has invested in recent years a total of 482,921.47 euros in the rehabilitation of a total of 388 protected homes belonging to different public promotion groups in Arrecife and Tías.
Rojas stated that the rehabilitation of homes is the main line of the Canary Islands Housing Plan and stressed that "only in the first two years of the current Plan have more than 18,000 homes been rehabilitated in the Canary Islands." "Rehabilitation and replacement facilitate access to housing for families who need it most without consuming more land, but they are also a boost to the economy as they allow us to create jobs or maintain existing ones, precisely in one of the sectors most affected by the current economic situation," he explained.
More than 1,000 families
The actions that the Ministry of Social Welfare, Youth and Housing of the Government of the Canary Islands carried out during the first year of the current Canary Islands Housing Plan reached a total of 1,091 families in Lanzarote, 211 residents in the municipality of Tías.
The different actions contemplated in the Plan in new construction, land, aid for rehabilitation, rent and mortgage loans, allowed to mobilize in this year a total of 26,683,850.98 euros, of which about 5 million were invested in actions carried out in the municipality.