The aggravation of social inequality and poverty in Canary Islands It leads the administrations to look for solutions, such as for the maintenance of the houses. The Cabildo de Tenerife, through the Municipal Cooperation and Housing area, allocates one million euros for municipalities to help their neighbors to rehabilitate homes. The councilor of the area, Zebenzuí Chinea, clarifies that through this plan the Cabildo helps the municipalities in works and reforms in housing, «especially of vulnerable families, to guarantee good habitability and accessibility conditions in their homes and improve their quality of life».
This is the economic amount authorized for this year in the Insular Housing Rehabilitation Plan, to which 26 municipalities on the Island have adhered this year. The plan has a total budget of 1,060,918 euros, of which the Cabildo finances most of it (1,000,463 euros) and the municipalities, the remaining 60,455 euros. Zebenzuí Chinea highlights the “important social function” that these economic contributions fulfill, that have allowed reform and accessibility works in the homes of neighbors with reduced mobility, as well as fixing leaks and humidity, improvements to waterproofing on roofs, electricity installations, among many other repairs.
“These contributions play a vital role in the quality of life of the people of Tenerife”
The counselor is meeting with the town councils to find out about the works that have been carried out through this island program in previous years and to coordinate the new approved investment. He has already met with the mayor of El Sauzal, Mariano Pérez, a municipality that this year has an item of 39,505 euros. For Mariano Pérez, the Cabildo’s housing rehabilitation program is “an enormously valuable resource for the most vulnerable families or those with difficulties in their economic capacity.” “In our municipality there have been several properties that have benefited from this important initiative, and to record this we have made a visit so that the councilor himself could check the result of the rehabilitation works and so that he could meet and chat with the beneficiaries, those behind the figures and data, which, after all, is what is really important». There has also been a tour of the homes subject to repairs in La Victoria de Acentejo, which this year has an item of 39,601 euros.
Another mayor, Juan Antonio García, from La Victoria, emphasizes that this plan is “very important” for towns with fewer than 20,000 inhabitants. “Thanks to the grants from this island program and the municipal contribution, in the previous year 31 families were helped to fix their houses and there are another 25 in the study phase,” García clarified, adding that in his municipality “self-construction abounds of houses that have become old and that require many improvements ». Thus, the aid is mainly focused on older people who need to condition and adapt their home for daily life, as has happened in the municipality of Victoriero itself.
