María José Regalado draws strength from weakness, despite the fact that her struggle, which is that of 14 families in a building in El Fraile (Arona), has now gone on for nine years, those that have elapsed since she entered social housing with an option to purchase and woke up in the property of a bank, which foreclosed on the developer, who, in turn, had received public aid to build it.
In December 2021, the Arona City Council and Visocan, a body of the Government of the Canary Islands, agreed that the former would transfer 2.7 million euros to the latter and, with that money, Visocan would repurchase the Aloe I building. In June 2022, as made. However, and despite the efforts made by Visocan before the proprietary fund, the reality is that, as of yesterday, nothing had been signed. What’s more, last June eviction communications arrived again, as has been the case for nine years, when in 2014 the foreclosure took place on the developer of the property and the fund became the owner. The first releases were announced in 2015. And María José Regalado and her neighbors managed to stop them. In 2015, in 2018 and now. “Once again we receive eviction letters when there is an agreement between Visocan and the owner fund. Now, it seems that they are going to be suspended until December, but what happens if the purchase agreement is not signed in December and the contracts are drawn up for us? Regalado wonders.
“We are people who accessed these homes in a vulnerable situation. People with dependent minors, with disabilities, unemployed or who live with a little help… It is assumed that what Visocan and the fund have discussed lasts until December 21, but what if they back down? he wonders.
His intention is to go next Thursday to the Visocan headquarters and chain himself. “We have stopped 16 evictions, we have won two municipal plenary sessions, we have reached an agreement from the City Council with Visocan… That’s good.”
