The Congress of Deputies has approved this Thursday a regulation that will allow the Cabildo of Lanzarote, as the new owner of the Valterra homes, to grant the property deeds of the same in favor of those who have been "their legitimate owners for almost seventy years".
The president, María Dolores Corujo, highlights that with the approval of this transfer to the Cabildo "an end is put to years of insecurity for seventy families who for too long have feared for the ownership of their home".
On the occasion of the approval of this transfer, the senator for the island of Lanzarote, Manuel Fajardo Palarea, the president of the Cabildo, María Dolores Corujo, and the Minister of Public Works, Alfredo Mendoza, have moved to the Congress of Deputies, accompanied by a representation of the affected residents, to attend the approval of the definitive solution to the problem derived from the ownership of the homes in the Arrecife neighborhood of Valterra.
What's next
After the transfer of the Valterra homes to the Cabildo, the first island institution will launch the necessary procedure to identify the legitimate owners of each of the homes and proceed to grant the corresponding property deeds.
In this sense, Corujo has stated that the First Island Institution "will put all its resources at the service of those affected and will create a specific advisory office to help resolve the doubts that may arise for the owners during the final processing of procedures that will finally do justice to these people".
The president explained that this is a procedure with a certain complexity and precisely for that reason the Social Marine Institute required the participation of a local entity "to be able to put an end to this unfair situation".
Corujo recalled that, "initially, a agreement between the Social Marine Institute and the Arrecife City Council had been chosen, with a prior commitment being signed by the previous mayor of Arrecife, Eva de Anta, but that agreement was broken with the arrival of Astrid Pérez to the Mayor's Office of Arrecife, due to her refusal to take charge of the homes".
"Faced with this unjustified blockage, it was the president who proposed that the Cabildo take charge of these procedures, with the senator for Lanzarote being responsible for closing an agreement with the Social Marine Institute that has led to the solution now adopted," they add from the Cabildo.
Thus, the new Law of urgent measures to promote building rehabilitation activity contains an additional provision that grants ownership of these houses to the Cabildo of Lanzarote, which, "will immediately initiate the procedures for them to officially become those who are and have been, de facto, their legitimate owners during the last seven decades", the president explained.
“Commitment acquired”
“The Socialist Party has given a real solution to the commitment acquired with the residents of Valterra”, declared the senator for Lanzarote, Manuel Fajardo, who recalls a meeting held with those affected in April 2019, accompanied by the now deputy Ariuagona González. The senator wanted to thank the “predisposition and collaboration” provided by the Social Marine Institute and the Cabildo of Lanzarote. “We were clear that we should work with those who wanted to contribute to putting an end to a painful situation caused by the neglect, inaction and disinterest of the Arrecife City Council, which has left dozens of families in a situation of special vulnerability absolutely unprotected”.
The president of the First Island Institution, María Dolores Corujo, also present at that meeting with the residents of Valterra, expressed herself in the same line. “I can't imagine how happy they must feel after decades of fear and uncertainty”.
Corujo explained that “although it has not been a simple process, the new regulatory framework and the rigorous work of the senator and the Cabildo have allowed us to find a solution to a problem that has affected families who were abandoned to their fate by the City Council governed by Astrid Pérez, whom, for sure, we will see again in a few months walking through Valterra to ask for the vote of the same people to whom she has turned her back during these last years”.
Fajardo and Corujo held a meeting at the beginning of this week with the affected residents to give them “the good news” and inform them of the steps to follow during the process of formalizing the ownership of their homes.
Likewise, the deputy and councilor of the Cabildo, Ariagona González, has shown her satisfaction: "It is a pride and an enormous satisfaction for me to have added my vote to the approval of a regulation that puts an end to years of insecurity for the families of Valterra".
The origin of the lawsuit
The Valterra neighborhood has a total of 200 homes built in 1955 by the Social Marine Institute, with the participation of different canneries, to be used for workers related to fishing as official protection homes.
However, while the State handed over 130 to the tenants, a lawsuit was initiated over the other 70 when the three canneries claimed their ownership. Thus, the residents have lived with the fear of being evicted from their homes at any moment and without being able to intervene on them due to the lack of legal rights.