The assistance provided to individuals experiencing homelessness by the Santa Cruz City Council, via the Municipal Shelter (CMA), has sparked a debate between the two capital cities of the Canary Islands. Comments made by the Councillor for Social Care, Charín González, urging Las Palmas de Gran Canaria to fulfil its duty to register vulnerable individuals, following reports of cases from that municipality being supported at the shelter in Santa Cruz, were met with criticism from the adjacent council.
“The assertions made by the councillor are entirely baseless, given that, as she admits, they rely on testimonies from third parties, who have never approached this council, which is astonishing,” remarked Carmen Luz Vargas, the councillor for Social Welfare in Las Palmas.
In the meantime, the mayor of Santa Cruz, José Manuel Bermúdez, stated that his councillor’s comments are founded on accounts from NGOs that assist homeless individuals. “We register numerous individuals in our Municipal Shelter, and from that point, they gain access to the range of assistance available. It is noteworthy that the proportion of individuals from this city is very minimal compared to that of other municipalities.”
The councillor emphasised that “we must communicate with the other municipalities on the Island and, of course, with the major capitals because the situation is prevailing, and it may be due to certain localities lacking the resources to support the vulnerable population. The Council and the Government need to address this issue or we will be overwhelming the already strained resources of a capital city.”
For this reason, he called for “collaboration and additional resources outside of Santa Cruz to prevent numerous individuals from needing to register at our Municipal Reception Centre to obtain assistance. We must offer other municipalities equivalent services so that those of us with an extensive range of services do not bear the brunt of the impact.”
Bermúdez reminded that the Santa Cruz City Council invests nearly 32 million euros in Social Services: “We are among the top 10 municipalities in Spain regarding social services expenditure per capita,” he emphasised.
