The Ministry of Public Works, Transport and Housing of the Government of the Canary Islands has signed this Wednesday a new collaboration agreement with the General Council of the Judiciary (CGPJ) and the Canary Federation of Municipalities (FECAM) to establish an action protocol, jointly and coordinated, in the face of eviction situations of vulnerable families in the Canary Islands and avoid, whenever possible, evictions.
“We are signing an agreement that adapts to a concrete reality that we are experiencing in the Canary Islands and that fundamentally seeks to avoid evictions in our Autonomous Community with the different instruments that the administration has. Therefore, we are increasing that social shield that already existed so that in the next four years Canarian families with difficulties are much more protected than they were until today,” said Minister Sebastián Franquis, “and this is a good time because on the 30th of this month the protection period established by the State through Royal Decree ends, so what we do is extend that period and, in addition, we extend it generally to all vulnerable families, not exclusively to people affected by COVID or the war in Ukraine, as stated in the Royal Decree.”
The agreement, which has been signed in Santa Cruz de Tenerife by the acting Minister, Sebastián Franquis, and the president of FECAM, María Concepción Brito, and which will be signed later by the president of the CGPJ, Carlos Lesmes, has a validity of four years, extendable, and will allow improving public management in the face of an eviction through the intervention of the Canary Islands Housing Institute (ICAVI) and the social services of the Canarian town councils.
The agreement contemplates the immediate paralysis in cases of eviction due to non-payment of economically and socially vulnerable families – those who have income less than 1.5 times the Public Indicator of Income for Multiple Effects (IPREM), that is, 11,862 euros per year; situations of dependency or disability; victims of gender violence; large families, etc. - where, in the opinion of the Judicial Authority, the need for intervention by the municipal social services or the Government of the Canary Islands is determined to achieve a solution to the eviction.
Faced with a possible case, the first step established in the Agreement focuses on informing the affected person of the resources available to them. If it is an owner facing mortgage default, the protocol contemplates informing the affected people of the Code of Good Banking Practices, in case they can face the debt and not reach the eviction. In the case of eviction of tenants for non-payment of rent, the courts will inform of the different programs offered by both the Government of the Canary Islands and the town councils for social assistance.
The second step established by this protocol focuses on the eviction process, if it is going to be executed and it is detected that they are people in a vulnerable situation, the courts commit to paralyzing the procedure and notifying ICAVI so that the Canary Islands Pro-Hogar program is activated and the risk situation of those affected is verified.
Once said vulnerability is certified, the affected people are included in the Canary Islands Pro Hogar, where they may be provided with assistance to pay the rent and avoid eviction, or they will be referred to the municipal resources that are available and offered by the town councils, such as temporary housing. Another way that is established to avoid eviction is to negotiate directly with the investment funds or banking entities that own the property, as ICAVI currently does through the Canary Islands Pro Hogar.
Unlike Royal Decree-Law 11/2020 which currently keeps eviction cases paralyzed in situations of vulnerability caused by the health crisis of Covid-19 or derived from the war in Ukraine, the Agreement signed this Wednesday will allow the paralysis of evictions to be applied to all cases of vulnerability in the Canary Islands, thus guaranteeing the necessary attention and avoiding the risk of those affected falling into a situation of social exclusion. In addition, this agreement will not focus on large holders, but will cover any judicial eviction procedure in the islands.
“I believe that the Canary Islands has made great progress in recent years in terms of housing and defense of the rights of the most vulnerable, managing to avoid more than 1,300 evictions in the last three years. Therefore, this agreement confirms what has been done so far, more or less voluntarily, between the different public administrations to do it through a protocol and through official channels.
That is why I thank the town councils, through FECAM, and also the Council of the Judiciary, for signing this agreement and this protocol with us so that in the next four years Canarian families with difficulties are much more protected than they were until today,” stressed Sebastián Franquis.
Tools such as the Canarias ProHogar have allowed, since 2021 and to date, to stop 1,378 evictions in the Archipelago, so this agreement will allow to promote this type of instruments jointly and coordinated between administrations, as indicated by the acting Minister.
