The PSOE of Lanzarote warns that accessing decent housing “is no longer possible even with a job,” and points out that the island "is experiencing a housing crisis that is driving people out of their own territory while the responsible institutions look the other way.” The Insular Committee of the PSOE has approved a resolution on housing matters in which it accuses Coalición Canaria and the Partido Popular of "not providing any real political response to a situation that it considers to be a social emergency".
"The housing crisis in Lanzarote is not a future risk, it is the present," states the Secretary-General of the PSOE of Lanzarote and Member of Congress, María Dolores Corujo. "Today in Lanzarote there are families and thousands of young people who cannot rent, people who work here but cannot live in the municipality where they work, elderly people who fear losing the roots of a lifetime. Having a job no longer guarantees being able to pay for a roof over your head. That is not 'market tension', that is a social emergency."
The PSOE of Lanzarote maintains that housing has become a direct factor in the expulsion of the resident population. Essential professionals, healthcare workers, teachers, caregivers, workers in the tourism and service sectors are forced to seek accommodation elsewhere or assume unaffordable rents. "When a person who takes care of your elders, who teaches your children, or who attends to you at the health center cannot live here, it is not an individual problem: it is an island problem," Corujo emphasizes.
The Island Committee denounces that, faced with this reality, the Canarian Coalition and the Popular Party act as "if nothing were happening." "There is a total absence of political response from the Government of the Canary Islands, presided over by CC and supported by the PP," Corujo states. "We do not see serious planning, we do not see a willingness to regulate, we do not see a real defense of residential use against speculation. We see declarations, but no solutions," she continues.
The PSOE [Spanish Socialist Workers' Party] of Lanzarote demands that "the tools that already exist to intervene in the housing market be applied in a real and effective way: the Housing Law must be used to protect those who depend on their salary and do not live off speculative income; the youth rental voucher must be activated and paid with seriousness and agility, so that it ceases to be an empty promise and becomes a real help for those who cannot become independent due to the price of rent; and taxation must serve to stop the massive conversion of residential housing into a tourism product and limit the purely speculative use of real estate."
The PSOE also argues that "the available land should be used primarily for housing for those who reside and work here, and not for operations that expel the local population."
"The Government of the Canary Islands has the political and moral obligation to intervene," insists María Dolores Corujo. "Saying 'prices are very high' is not an answer. The answer is to regulate, protect the existing stock, set limits, and prioritize the right to live here," they declare.
For the PSOE of Lanzarote, this crisis "already compromises the island's own model." "What is at stake is whether Lanzarote will continue to be a habitable place for its own people or a territory where living becomes a privilege," warns the island's secretary. "Defending Lanzarote is also defending that its people can afford to live there," they conclude.
