Santa Cruz de Tenerife is one of the few municipalities, if not the only one, that is going to be in charge of directly executing the Canarian Housing Plan that corresponds to the capital, specifically the part attached to the Canarian Housing Institute (Icavi ), and through which 343 floors will be built. For this, the Santa Cruz City Council has practically ready the agreement with the Government of the Canary Islands that will allow it to start the construction of these houses, as the councilor for Municipal Housing, Juan José Martínez, told DIARIO DE AVISOS. “We want to take it to the next plenary session (September), to formalize as soon as possible the link with the Government of the Canary Islands that allows us to carry out in Santa Cruz all the actions of the Canary Plan that are not going to be carried out directly by the Ministry or by Visocan ”.
As detailed by Martínez, “there are 343 homes, among which are those of Cuevas Blancas, María Jiménez and Príncipes de España, with which we would reach that figure”. The mayor recalls that, “apart are the 92 run by the Ministry of Housing, which are on La Monja street, and another 310 that Visocan will promote, which complete the record of more than 700 homes that the Plan contemplates for the municipality of Santa Cruz ”.
Martínez valued the capacity of the municipality to directly execute those 343 homes. “We are one of the few municipalities, perhaps the only one at the moment, that assume the management of the Plan in their municipality, through Municipal Housing. In fact, we have already started, without waiting for the agreement, bidding for the drafting of the Cuevas Blancas and María Jiménez projects, which are currently in the process of evaluating technical offers by the College of Architects, which we wanted to involve in this technical part because they are quite deep projects ”.
The mayor of the Treasury also pointed out that, “we are talking about a total investment that will exceed 33.5 million, destined entirely to the construction of these 343 homes, to which should be added the imputation of the price of the land, which is a municipal contribution, and which have an estimated value of almost six million euros, which is not a negligible contribution ”.
The mayor of Santa Cruz, José Manuel Bermúdez, pointed out that with the execution of these projects, which represent more than 80% of the Canary Islands Government Plan for Santa Cruz, “we not only achieved the commitment that we had reached for this mandate, but it is exceeded. In addition, we must add the 44 homes in El Tablero, with which we are facing an unprecedented investment in housing in Santa Cruz, becoming the main investment policy of this City Council ”.
Both the mayor and the Councilor for Housing are grateful for the will of the Government of the Canary Islands, and more specifically the director of Icavi, to involve the City Council of Santa Cruz, through Municipal Housing, in the execution of the Plan. “It is an exceptional situation, which is possible because we have an effective management instrument that guarantees good management.”
Regarding the deadlines, Martínez explains that, “if we can make the agreement effective in October or November of this year, we could award the drafting next month, and be already bidding for work next year.”
Agreement
The document that links the Government of the Canary Islands and the City Council of Santa Cruz aims to implement in the municipality of Santa Cruz de Tenerife, the “program to increase the public housing stock” of the Canary Islands Housing Plan 2020-2025, in the plots that the City Council of Santa Cruz makes available for this purpose.
The Canarian Housing Plan 2020 includes the construction of 743 social housing units in the Tenerife capital, of which 343 have been assigned to the Canary Islands Housing Institute (Icavi), 310 to Visocan and 90 are within the 20,000 State Plan. In this way, Icavi’s commitments include committing to provide the necessary financing for the execution of the construction works of the houses on the plots made available for this purpose by the Santa Cruz City Council.
The Canarian Housing Institute undertakes to qualify the dwellings provided that they comply with what is required by the legislation on protected housing, and to carry out the selection of housing awardees from among those registered in the Public Registry of Claimants of Canary Islands Protected Housing.
For its part, the Santa Cruz City Council will make available the planned and necessary plots in order to proceed with the construction of houses. In addition, it must ensure that the execution of the homes is carried out in strict accordance with current regulations, as well as ensuring the proper management and maintenance of the homes that are qualified.
Regarding the Municipal Housing commitments, it undertakes to carry out the material actions aimed at the construction of the houses on the plots made available by the City Council, including the drafting of the corresponding projects, the management and the execution of the works, in accordance with the order that the City Council carries out for this purpose, which may include, where appropriate, the management and maintenance of the dwellings.
