Council of Tenerife Y Canary Islands Government promote the rehabilitation and acquisition of housing. is the main conclusion of the meeting between the councilors of the regional area, Sebastián Franquis, and insular, Zebenzuí Chinea. The latter advances that before the end of this summer, the 2022 Insular Housing Rehabilitation Program will begin to be executed, approved last May with the allocation of more than one million euros. For his part, Franquis values the implementation of the acquisition or construction of 1,070 homes in the Canary Islands, as well as the fact that aid worth more than eight million euros has been delivered to families or young people for the purchase of their first living place.
Chinea and Franquis meet the Insular Housing Council to account for and share the actions and strategies that both institutions carry out to promote the rehabilitation and acquisition of housing.
Zebenzuí Chinea advances that that rehabilitation process will begin before the end of the summer “With which we intend to continue strengthening our collaboration with all the municipalities of Tenerife.”
The plan is aimed primarily at the population with fewer resources. As a novelty this year, the municipal contribution will be reduced by half. In this way, municipalities with less than 20,000 inhabitants will only assume 5 percent of the costs (previously it was 10%); those with between 20,000 and 50,000 inhabitants 10 percent (previously 20%), and those with more than 50,000 25% (previously 50%).
Zebenzuí Chinea also recalls that the Island Corporation has increased its percentage of contribution to the projects of the Urban and Rural Renewal and Regeneration Area (ARRUS), which goes from the usual 10 percent, to more than 20 percent in specific cases. In the same way, he points out that, thanks to European Next Generation funds, an item of 2,150,000 euros has been incorporated and approved for the improvement of two urbanizations, one in Santa Cruz (Añaza) and another in La Laguna (El Cardonal). ).
The island official also stresses that the current government team has “definitively” promoted the urbanization project of Las Chumberas. «It was a historic demand, and today, the first phase of the plan, whose objective was the demolition of the ten housing blocks, has concluded. Now we are immersed in the second phase, which will consist of redevelopment.
To combat the housing shortage on the island, Chinea reports that an item of 4 million euros has been included for the acquisition of real estate for affordable rental. On the other hand, it highlights that the Island Corporation will maintain its support for the Base 25 project, from Cáritas, with a budget of 356,000 euros. It emphasizes the collaboration, coordination and permanent contact with the Autonomous Executive through the Canarias Pro Hogar program, “which has made it possible to stop situations of eviction and releases that directly affected families in Tenerife.”
During his speech, Sebastián Franquis also emphasizes the 6.7 million for rental aid (of which 2,609 people have benefited) and 2.08 million for the acquisition of young housing, with 262 beneficiaries under 35 years of age.
Another of the programs of the new Housing Plan that the regional councilor outlines is the one created to combat rural depopulation in Canarian municipalities with less than 20,000 inhabitants. In Tenerife, in the first edition of these aids, that of 2021, 15 municipalities presented themselves, among which 4.4 million euros were distributed. Finally, Franquis recalls the good reception that the new line of aid included in the Plan has had, the empty housing program, with which it is intended to encourage private owners to rent their houses to the Government to put them on the market at affordable prices with destined for families with few resources. This program, with a few months of filming, proposes to put on the market more than 700 private homes in the Canary Islands and the Ministry will allocate more than eight million.
The meeting was also attended by business representatives, unions, professionals and representatives of all the political groups of the Cabildo.
Almost 15,000 performances and 137 million investment
The Minister of Public Works, Transport and Housing, Sebastián Franquis, details in this forum with the Cabildo de Tenerife the results of the first year and a half of execution of the Canary Islands Housing Plan 2020-2025, with a total of 14,686 actions and 137 million of euros of investment. One of the central axes of this project has been the acquisition and construction of affordable rental housing. According to the councilor of the area, the process for the acquisition or construction of 1,070 homes in the Canary Islands has already begun, and throughout 2021 538 evictions were avoided, 241 in the western province. “It is essential that each of the islands has a housing package that allows responding to families with fewer resources or at risk of social exclusion,” says Franquis. In that same period, 5,800 homes have been reformed or rehabilitated, both in the public stock and in private developments. For all these reasons, he insists on his balance, “to be the first year of execution, I believe that from the Government of the Canary Islands we are laying the foundations to fulfill the fundamental objective of this Plan” He values that this is “to put on the rental market 6,000 houses bought or built. It is “the most effective instrument to lower market prices,” concludes Franquis.
