SANTA CRUZ DE TENERIFE, March 6 (EUROPA PRESS) –
A survey carried out by Tierra Bonita among those affected by the Tajogaite volcano receiving housing rental aid has confirmed the considerable delay in the payment of these subsidies and the insufficiency of their amounts with respect to real prices due to real estate speculation after the volcanic eruption.
For this reason, this NGO, which has had the collaboration of Cáritas for data collection, will present a letter to the Canary Islands Housing Institute (ICAVI) to request that they pay in the money each month and adapt the amount of aid to the cost lease.
As reported by Tierra Bonita, almost 91% of those surveyed are forced to advance the entire rental amount between 4 and 7 months, so that only 9% receive payments every four months, the term stipulated by the Canarian Government , but still too long for many people, says the NGO.
Around 71% have to wait between almost 6 months (5.83) and 7 months to have the money from these aids. This payment term for families with lower income makes it very difficult for them, when it is not impossible, to make ends meet, according to the testimonies collected by Tierra Bonita.
In light of these data, the association will request that the beneficiaries receive the income from these aids month by month, from the perspective that this process does not have to be more difficult than the monthly payment of salaries to administration personnel. public, including the politicians themselves.
This NGO decided to carry out this study after receiving complaints from those affected by the eruption about this aid, which was articulated as another measure to provide a housing solution for the population that lost their home buried by the lava.
The alternatives to this option were the delivery, on a provisional basis, of container and wooden homes and flats purchased by the Ministry of Housing, pending the final homes whose construction will depend on the decree law still in process by which some developable land at the ends of the lava flows and in other publicly owned land in the three municipalities of the Valley.
In June 2022, applications for these rental aids began to be processed, while many other people continued and continue to stay in the homes of family and friends, or in premises set up as homes, among other options. The payment of these subsidies requires prior justification each quarter.
REAL ESTATE SPECULATION
Mónica Riverol, a collaborating member of Tierra Bonita, who has coordinated this survey, explains that many affected, with a family economy destroyed by this catastrophe, “have found themselves with a real estate market in which speculation is the bread of every day, something that also happens with the sale of real estate and land; and it is that in a troubled river, they say, fishermen gain, but in a misfortune like this the lack of manifest solidarity of landlords is bloody”.
“There is also evidence of many cases in which people have not even been able to take advantage of this rental assistance because the landlord -also applying inflated prices- did not make them a contract, but the tenants affected by the eruption have had to commune with wheels of a mill so as not to lose a place to shelter”, emphasizes Rivero.
The La Palma NGO highlighted that these ICAVI grants were also intended for people who were already renting in the areas affected by the eruption, without the amount of the subsidy being able to exceed that of the original rent, despite the fact that the prices of the real estate market on La Palma before the eruption and after are no longer the same and have become more expensive.
“In addition, Tierra Bonita observes that the Canarian Government itself commits a wrong among those affected, since in the precarious homes delivered, whose winners do not receive this aid, rent is not paid the first year and 20 euros per month from the second year” , as the Tierra Bonita Association has learned through people who live in them.
Approximately 10% of the beneficiaries of the aid have collaborated in the sample. It was carried out from January 12 to February 12, 2023. The data requested from the participants is their number of the Single Registry of People Affected by the Eruption, full name, months that had accumulated without payment of the aid, rent amount, square meters of the home and number of rooms, in addition to your signature (with the proper authorization for the use and transfer of data to the corresponding Administrations).
Mónica Riverol pointed out that the fact that many of these tenants have already received economic donations and official aid, for belongings or for loss of their first home, from the Cabildo de La Palma or the Government cannot be used as an argument to de-prioritize these subsidies. State (since the 30,000 euros from the Canary Islands Government have not yet received them).
And, on the other hand, with the rest of the aid received, many affected people try not to touch it in order to invest in buying a house, land or simply building, if the time comes for them to give them a plot as an exchange in exchange for their destroyed properties, a method that The regional government has put on the table, adds Riverol.
DISORIENTATION OF THOSE AFFECTED.
Tierra Bonita has also detected the disorientation in which those affected have been seen to present their receipts with which to justify the payment of the rents, a requirement to collect the aid, since the closure of the Office of the Single Registry of Affected People, created by the Canarian Government and located in the Casa Massieu in Los Llanos de Aridane, and there was confusion as to whether it remained open, so this NGO maintains its indication to applicants for these subsidies to present these supporting documents accompanied by a letter in the entry records of the town halls or by the electronic headquarters of the Canarian Government if a certificate or digital signature is available.
Finally, it should be noted that this NGO made a query on the real estate portal El Idealista on February 26, 2023 and the result of rental prices shows amounts per square meter even higher than those collected in the survey and those taken as reference by the Canarian Government.
