Tenants’ Union: What are Fuerteventura’s mayors waiting for before declaring housing pressure zones?

“What’s going on, what’s going on? We have no home” and “It’s not a nice flat, it’s a fucking hovel” were among the chants heard at a demonstration called by Fuerteventura’s Tenants’ Union. It set off shortly after 11.20am from the Island Directorate of the General State Administration in Puerto del Rosario.

Around 300 people, according to figures provided by the Local Police and the National Police, marched through several streets in the city centre, along León y Castillo, Avenida de la Constitución and Juan Tadeo Cabrera, before returning to the starting point on Primero de Mayo street. Whistles accompanied chants including “Here we are, the anti-fascists” and “Clavijo, listen, we’re in the struggle”.

Declare housing pressure zones now

Outside the Island Directorate of the General State Administration, Andrea Curbelo and Lara Padilla read out the Tenants’ Union manifesto. The group denounced the imbalance between wages and housing costs, blaming speculation. It also called on the Canary Islands Government and town councils to act urgently, directly addressing the mayors of Pájara, La Oliva and Puerto del Rosario.

“Does anyone here today really think that Morro or Corralejo are not housing pressure zones? Isn’t Puerto del Rosario already a housing pressure zone too?” the union asked.

The union’s first demand is the urgent designation of housing pressure zones across the island and the exclusion of holiday rentals from residential areas. “There can’t be holiday homes in residential areas,” it said.

The organisation is also calling for a moratorium on the purchase of homes for non-residential use. It wants the restriction to remain in place until access to decent housing is guaranteed.

Other demands include halting evictions where no alternative accommodation is available and requiring public authorities to buy empty homes and add them to the public housing stock. The manifesto emphasises making use of existing homes and ensuring that any properties added to the stock remain permanently public.

One of the most warmly received demands was the immediate outlawing of anti-squatter eviction companies.

The union says the judicial system already has mechanisms to enforce the law and argues that the activities of these companies are worsening conflicts in neighbourhoods and apartment blocks.

After the manifesto was read, representatives of other groups that had joined the demonstration spoke in support of the right to housing.

Two spokespeople for Fuerteventura’s Tenants’ Union, Pau Valverde and Chus Vila, told La Voz de Fuerteventura they were pleased with the public turnout and stressed that “only social pressure can change things”.

A second demonstration is scheduled in Puerto del Rosario on the day of the general strike. Comisiones Obreras and UGT have called a march for 5.30pm, which will also set off from the Island Directorate of the General State Administration.