Seven families relocated since March by the Güímar City Council in five floors of El Puertito and two in the old town face a second eviction. First it was that of their homes in Las Bajas before the decree signed by the then mayor, Airam Puerta, due to the risk of landslides in that coastal area next to the Güímar tunnels and now that of the rental flats offered by the Consistory and that the construction company of the works was in charge of paying.
The stoppage of the works about two months ago due to the refusal of the municipal legal services to continue paying the certifications of payment for the extra cost of the same – the cost was quintupled – has forced the UTE to stop paying this month to the real estate that manages the flats where the seven families who demonstrated that they had their first and only home in Las Bajas are relocated. In such a way that the real estate agency has sent an eviction order, according to Ana María, one of those affected, who since March has been staying in El Puertito with her 11-year-old and 19-month-old children. “Not only do they not take us out of our homes, but now they don’t pay us our rent either, without being able to return to our homes, because the works are not finished,” he declared.
Ana María pointed out that “the City Council has not told us anything.” Likewise, he wonders “how is it possible that this work costs so much when they have only put projected cement on the slope and little else, without making the dike, as was said, so that the sea would not reach us”.
In addition, to this new eviction must be added the threat of the recovery of possession of the public domain that Costas has already initiated. “I have not received that notification, which has reached other neighbors,” said Ana María, who bought her home in 2011, “with deeds that reflect that it was built in 1975”, also recalling that “I pay electricity, water and even garbage, when we have the closest container in the El Puertito Nautical Center ”.
Given these facts, Mayor Gustavo Pérez explained that “the City Council, due to the extension in time of the Las Bajas file, has initiated the procedures for the procedure of granting subsidies to the affected people”, adding that “the work continues to waiting for the reports, which are quite dense ”.
