The candidate for the Senate for Lanzarote and La Graciosa of Unidas Podemos, Jorge Peñas, affirms that "his priority will be to demand the creation of a public rental housing park for these islands, both through purchase by the administration and through mechanisms of mandatory transfer of empty homes hoarded by large housing holders, especially banking corporations."
Peñas considers it "urgent" that "a future progressive government in Spain attends to the concrete reality of island and tourist territories such as Lanzarote and La Graciosa, where job insecurity combined with housing speculation makes it impossible for hundreds of families to guarantee their right to have a decent home." The candidate of the purple formation assures that "it is evident that neither the governments of the right, both in the State and in the Canary Islands, nor the PSOE alone, have prioritized the constitutional right to decent housing."
"Only if Unidas Podemos is decisive in both chambers can a home be guaranteed for all people and families, including those in situations of economic vulnerability, and, in that context, conveying the very serious situation in Lanzarote will be vital," he says.
"We will make the large pockets of empty housing owned by banks and real estate speculators available to citizens through affordable social rental formulas," says Peñas, insisting that "Lanzarote has one of the most strained rental markets in the State, and only the intervention of public authorities in favor of people's rights can prevent the tragedies experienced by thousands of citizens of the island, ensuring that the average expenditure on housing does not exceed 30% of the salary of workers."
"Not a single eviction without a housing alternative"
Jorge Peñas, who emphasizes that he knows "directly" the housing situation on the island due to his work as a legal advisor to the housing platform, highlights the proposal of Unidas Podemos to prohibit the eviction of people and families in vulnerable situations, without the competent Administration guaranteeing a rehousing in dignified conditions. "It is regrettable to observe the passivity of the administrations while entire families are evicted, who then have to initiate an institutional pilgrimage that often goes unanswered," he says. "Faced with this, we will implement the necessary protocols between the Judiciary and the public institutions with competences in housing to define processes that always guarantee a housing alternative," the candidate of Unidas Podemos has committed.
Jorge Peñas has also highlighted that the program of Unidas Podemos includes other measures "of special urgency" for an island like Lanzarote, such as the access of young people to a home that allows them to emancipate, to curb the proliferation of tourist apartments through regulation and the establishment of maximum quotas in residential neighborhoods, or the prohibition of the interruption of basic supplies, such as electricity and water, when the non-payment derives from situations of poverty and vulnerability.
"The elections next Sunday will be vital to define whether housing begins to be a constitutional right that is respected or continues to be a serious social problem where speculation by those who have the most is prioritized," concluded the candidate for the Senate of Unidas Podemos for Lanzarote and La Graciosa.