Vox has claimed "national priority" in access to social housing in the Community of Madrid, while the PP has defended that in the region "effective attachment and linkage" is already ensured. The popular party has also emphasized the need to comply with data protection regulations and avoid "the direct or indirect identification of vulnerable families."
The debate has taken place around a Non-Legislative Proposition (PNL) registered by Vox in the Assembly of Madrid. In the text, the party urged to carry out an information audit of the Social Housing Agency, to prepare and disseminate an annual report on the profile of the awardees, and to introduce the concept of "national priority" in the regional regulations, making it visible in the calls and in the award resolutions.
To defend the initiative, the deputy Beatriz Tejero has emphasized that public ownership social housing is "a scarce and strategic resource in the Community of Madrid" and that thousands of people "are on the waiting list" to access a home from the Social Housing Agency, while the free market for buying and renting "maintains unaffordable prices for a good part of the population."
According to her, "it is essential that the distribution of social housing is carried out not only with criteria of need and legality but also with full transparency and clarity about who the awardees are," demanding an information and transparency audit in this area and insisting on "national priority" in access. "We are clear, first the locals," she concluded.
From the PP, the deputy Antonio Coello has stressed that public housing constitutes a "limited resource, for everyone and its management must be subject to criteria of transparency and control." He added, however, that there is already information about the activity of the Agency, but it is essential to respect "data protection regulations" to prevent the direct or indirect identification of vulnerable families.
Coello has also defended that currently the rooting in access to these homes is guaranteed and that there are "objective residency criteria." "What is clear is that if anyone, to put a nationality, Colombian, Peruvian, lives in our territory, works in our territory, contributes to our system and meets the requirements to obtain housing, they must have the same rights as any citizen for being beneficiaries of aid," he has claimed.
The left accuses Vox of racism and rejects national priority
On behalf of Más Madrid, the deputy Beatriz Borrás has described Vox's PNL as "pure and hard racism" and has attacked this formation and the PP for, in her opinion, siding with large property owners and investment funds.
Borrás has questioned whether Vox really acts in defense of Spanish families when it refuses to support measures to stop evictions, facilitate the purchase of the first home, or limit real estate speculation.
The parliamentarian from Más Madrid has announced that in the next Plenary, her group will register a housing guarantee law and eviction prevention in the scope of the Social Housing Agency. "If you really want to defend working families, Spanish families, vote in favor of this initiative," she has emphasized.
On behalf of the PSOE, the deputy Rafael Martínez has defended that the allocation of public housing must be based on criteria of need and compliance with established requirements, rejecting that nationality becomes a preference element. In his view, Vox's proposal confuses rooting with the so-called national priority.
Martínez has reminded that rooting is already among the access criteria to the Social Housing Agency and has insisted that transparency must serve to oversee the actions of the Administration, and not to publicly point out the beneficiaries of social housing.