Lacking a roof over her head, Lucía (a name that is not hers, but which she chose to make her voice heard on a radio program) has had to live outdoors, on the beach, in the same way as Workers in the south of Tenerife do it every day. These, perhaps, in other places, in their cars or vans. Abandoned premises are also frequent spaces, as this newspaper has shown and organizations such as Cáritas or the Red Cross have confirmed.
Without intervention in vacation rentals or a public initiative to build homes, the 1,500 euros of public aid she received was not enough for Lucía. If it is necessary to present an employment contract, up to three months of deposit and even a bank guarantee, this resident of Arona could not afford it.
As it was, he went to live in the Las Vistas beach together with her husband, who receives a payment of 480 euros. She, 59 years old, and he, 63. “Go to the beach for a weekend so you can see the screams at dawn. “You wake up scared at night,” she explains to assure: “I went to the National and Local Police to ask if I could sleep there, and they let me. We’re not hurting anyone, but vacation rentals are killing us. Evicted families with three-year-old children while others make black money. But what is this? ”She asks herself.
The point is that, days ago, and thanks to her testimony appearing on a program on the Cope network, Lucía and her husband have found someone to lend her a hand. “A charitable soul who heard me because my name is not recognized, but my voice is.” That is to say, she will start a new life after 11 months on the beach, from which she leaves in the morning and returns to it at night. That is, when there are no longer any people left who can disturb them. The rest of the time she goes with her husband to the Plaza de La Pescadora to sit until the day passes. “We eat a ham and cheese sandwich and a bottle of water,” she says.
“There are many people living in the car”
“Before that I did have a house,” says this woman who is describing her life. “I came to the South to work at the age of 16 in a tomato packaging business and I have been in Los Cristianos for 37 years. I don’t know what medical leave is and I came to know about unemployment now. I have been working in stores and in four and five star hotels all my life,” she emphasizes.
“There are a lot of people living in cars,” he says. “Waiters and workers, in addition to many people lying in the street. There are many families sitting in the square and outside the supermarkets,” she explains.
Lucía had planned to move to her new home this weekend, thanks to the initiative of this altruistic listener who, apparently, will not charge her at first, until her situation, and that of her husband, improves. However, she does not stop putting the emphasis on one of the most serious problems that the south of Tenerife is experiencing: the housing emergency in which she finds herself.
