During the afternoon of Sunday, October 18, a group of members of the housing movement in Lanzarote traveled to the Faro de Pechiguera area in Playa Blanca, Yaiza, to get a closer look at Villa Colombia and express our support for the more than two hundred families who inhabit this abandoned urbanization.
Walking through its streets is impressive. Everything in this place is humble, struck by material poverty, but at the same time invested with a dignity that is overwhelming. Diverse stories coexist here: neighbors who have been keeping this space alive for several years, along with families who have arrived more recently, driven by a lack of protection. In a place where speculation left only concrete skeletons, these people have built a home practically with their own hands. It is astonishing to enter one of their homes and also to witness how they have self-managed on a daily basis to solve basic issues: water and electricity supply, waste collection, sewage... Despite the accusations made against them by the former owner (unfairly blaming them for breaking doors and windows that were never installed), when they arrived, there was nothing.
Today, the community faces constant threats and attempts by the new owner to sow discord and divide them. Faced with these wearing-down tactics, the response has been greater cohesion: they are developing a census to jointly manage the conflict against the eviction that the owner intends to carry out.
Villa Colombia is a refuge where people of very diverse nationalities live together. Colombians, naturally, Moroccans, Senegalese, Spaniards too... Nothing is perfect, but the sense of belonging that is breathed in seemed exemplary to me. That same morning they had organized a community day to clean up the surroundings. When we arrived, a modest family party was being held in one of the houses, and cheerful Latin music could be heard, while children ran freely through the dirt streets with their bicycles and scooters. It is in the eyes of these children that your heart sinks. Sincere smiles that coexist with the weariness reflected on the faces of their parents: hardworking, humble, and honest people who only ask for something as basic as a roof over their heads.
There is a paradox in this place in the south of Lanzarote. These men and women are the same ones who sustain the island's economy: the waiters, the cleaners, the
workers in the service and tourism sector who make the engine of the south run. Their labor is desperately sought to sustain a prosperous economic model, but the same system denies them a place to live. They are required to work, but they are not allowed to live. Is this fair? If they cannot find a rental in town, it is not due to a lack of will or effort, but due to the voracity of an inaccessible real estate market that violently expels them.
After touring the urbanization, we met in assembly. We went out to listen, and you can imagine the emotion that overwhelmed us. Stories of great sacrifice. They offered us cake and a soft drink. Towards the end of the speeches, the sky closed in and it began to rain. The initial drizzle soon turned into a heavy downpour, but no one broke the circle. Within minutes, umbrellas and beach parasols began to open, appearing one by one, improvising a collective roof over the assembly to shelter us all, ensuring that no one was left exposed.
Faced with realities like Villa Colombia, public administrations cannot continue to act as passive spectators nor respond solely through judicial or police channels. Faced with the uncontrolled drain of holiday rentals that devours the residential stock, it is urgent to apply brave structural measures: cap tourist housing, immediately mobilize available public land to build affordable social housing rentals, and activate pre-emption and redemption mechanisms that allow for the rescue and rehabilitation of unfinished developments like this one. Likewise, institutions must assume active mediation to guarantee transitional rentals for these families while definitive public solutions are being developed.
We have an ethical and collective obligation to ensure that these families have decent housing. It is social justice. Villa Colombia has been a lesson for me and I believe for all who attended that afternoon, a demonstration that, in the face of institutional neglect, harassment tactics, and market greed, human dignity and mutual support are capable of building a home in the middle of that desert that is the stony plains of Rubicón.
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