For years, the discourse on social housing has revolved around the premise that it should be aimed at the most vulnerable families, those in extreme precariousness. And it is true. No one can question this point. However, what happens to all those people who, even working, cannot afford a home?
In Lanzarote, this question is no longer rhetorical, it is the daily reality of many families. More and more families with income are being left out of the system. They do not have access to social housing because they "earn too much", but they cannot rent on the free market because they "earn too little". And in the midst of this trap, they see how neighborhoods are emptied of residents and filled with vacation apartments.
In Arrecife, the contradiction is obvious. There are more than 3,000 empty homes in the city alone, and up to 20,000 on the entire island, according to recent estimates. Many of those houses are not closed by chance, almost two out of three are in the hands of large owners or investment funds. They are not used to live in or rented at reasonable prices, they are kept empty waiting for their value to rise.
At the same time, rents continue to skyrocket. In Arrecife, the average price is around 960 euros per month for a 70-meter apartment, after rising 25% in the last year. And that's if you're lucky. Because in some neighborhoods there is hardly any supply, and in others, the prices are unaffordable for a working family.
In other words, there are homes, but they are out of reach. And not for lack of effort, but for a model that prioritizes speculation over the right to a home.
It is as absurd as it is alarming. It has become naturalized that even two salaries are not enough to live with dignity. We are not talking about luxuries, we are talking about paying for a roof, raising children in a stable environment, not having to choose between rent and food. Meanwhile, on our island, empty homes are increasing, many converted into tourist assets or investments waiting for better returns.
The situation is unsustainable, it is becoming a structural trend. Young people who cannot become independent, elderly people with minimum pensions who cannot have their own home; families with children living temporarily in boarding rooms or forced to leave their homes because they cannot cope with the increase in rent. Working women sleeping in cars or sharing an apartment with strangers. All this happens here, in Lanzarote, and more and more frequently.
This housing trap is not a technical failure, it is the direct result of public policies that have prioritized the market over the right. Social housing, instead of being a safety net, has become an extreme exception, as if the right to decent housing were a prize reserved only for those who hit rock bottom.
But you don't have to hit rock bottom to need a home. You don't have to live on the street to need security. And you don't have to resign yourself to sharing an apartment at 40 to understand that something has broken in the social contract.
If a family with two salaries cannot afford to live on the island that sustains them with their work, then the problem is not with them, it is with the system. And the institutional silence in the face of this reality is, in itself, a form of violence.
Lanzarote cannot afford to continue looking the other way. We need a brave, planned and firm housing policy. Because it is not just about who has the greatest need, but about what kind of society we are building if living under a decent roof becomes a privilege and not a right.