We could say that we have won, but that is not the case. It should not be the battle of a single family, nor of an association led by a brave person, Elsa Betancort, because there are many more at this time who are in difficult, complicated, or even like this... desperate situations. The problem that Messaoud's family has experienced throughout this year has pushed them to the limit, having to expose themselves socially to get support and, finally, a solution. The shame of this social exposure should not be taken lightly.
Messaoud arrives in Lanzarote in 2002 and since then he starts working in the hospitality industry. Later his wife, Saadia Bourajaa, arrives, with whom he has his three daughters, aged 4, 11 and 13. While working he had an accident from which he cannot recover, which results in a pension of 720 euros, with which none of us could cope to pay rent, put food on the table, have water and electricity... cope with survival.
Then, in the middle of the hard times of the pandemic, they receive verbal notice that they must leave their home, so they start looking but they come across prices and requirements in Lanzarote housing that are impossible to meet. After a few months of anguish, the notifications arrive, the trial and the sentence that they must leave the house, despite never having defaulted on it.
This whole process is a back and forth to different entities: the social services of the town hall, the Cabildo, the Housing Office, the lawyer, Ahinor, the media, the Housing Councilor of the Cabildo (who did not attend us), or the local administrations themselves, which in many cases claim that they cannot do more than what the procedures allow.
It is Elsa Betancort who takes this case hand in hand to the media and the Government of the Canary Islands, and thus, through meetings with the co-spokesperson of Verdes Equo Canarias, Ester Gómez, she has managed to get the regional Ministry itself to commit to offering financial aid, the payment of rent for one year, renewable up to four, and the payment of electricity, water and Internet expenses up to a maximum of 200 euros. This alternative is what will be given to them until there is a free vacancy in the social housing stock, or the construction of those that are in process is finished.
This type of aid cannot be provided to anyone; they are specific aids that can only be accessed by families in situations of extreme vulnerability, such as the case of Messaoud's family, where the father has a permanent disability as a result of a work accident, for which he has not received any type of compensation, in addition to the illness of one of his daughters.
This is undoubtedly a victory in the battle against the housing crisis that has worsened with the pandemic in Lanzarote society. Shouldn't the administrations do their job so that these situations of total vulnerability do not occur in a society like ours? The local institutions have failed, and now we are just waiting for the next family in housing crisis to continue fighting. Meanwhile, we all breathe a sigh of relief because Saadia Bourajja's family will not be on the street.