It is the sixth oldest district in Madrid. Aluche It has almost 20,000 residents over 65 years old and this situation will grow over the years. Therefore, they claim Madrid City Council to build a senior center and another day center. They even propose the location: number 275 Camarena Street. It is a land that has been reserved for social facilities for 45 years and according to the PGOUM it has a surface for sports use and another for residential use. The residents of this neighborhood demand that the City Council change the classification of the part reserved for sports use due to the use of equipment to be able to build the two centers. This Thursday they demonstrate until the Board of Latin to claim what they have been asking for for years. From the City Council, they express their favorable position to “expand public facilities aimed at caring for the elderly in the district.” But remember that these types of projects require evaluation and administrative processing.
The march will coincide with the district’s monthly plenary session, where They have rejected a question from neighborhood groups on this issue: “Given that we know that the Popular Party has the will to build a day center and a senior center on the land at 275 Camarena Street, given the great over-aging that exists in the Latina district and specifically in the Aluche neighborhood, with a population of more than 61,000 inhabitants, as they have stated in the January and March plenary sessions; “What problem do they have with its construction being included in the 2025 budgets and, furthermore, with the establishment of a monitoring commission?”
The Latina Board has not allowed this issue to be formulated, considering it “reiterative” and understanding that it has been discussed previously. “It’s repetitive to wait 45 years for them to be built,” reacts Ana del Rincón, president of the Aluche Neighborhood Association. It maintains that the construction of these public facilities contributes to the reduction of inequalities, strengthens the welfare state and prevents social isolation. “We talk about unwanted loneliness. These centers are a meeting and socialization space that mitigates isolation that many older people experience.
According to the latest data from the municipal registry, Latina is home to a very large population with 250,396 inhabitants, with the Aluche neighborhood being the one with the largest population, with 68,973 residents. In the district there is a population over 65 years of age of 58,441 residents and In Aluche alone there are 19,252 inhabitants between 65 and 100 years old.which represents 33% of the entire district. In view of these data, the neighborhood associations maintain, “we can deduce that in 10 years the population of our district will be very old.” It happens that in Latina we have practically no public land, so “it is essential that the Camarena lands be used for senior facilities.”
Many of these older people, as del Rincón explains, They travel daily to senior centers in other neighborhoods and districts as Carabanchel, Villaverde or even outside the city of Madrid. In addition to the “danger of driving”, going to other areas where they do not live is not the same: “Meeting their neighbors or their friends comforts them,” he insists. For this reason, these “two facilities will ensure that many of our seniors stay in their neighborhood, and will not have the need to enter a residence or move to other areas.” Furthermore, he alleges that Camarena Street, where they propose that the centers be built, is the oldest part of the neighborhood, which “was formed in the sixties with people who came from Toledo, Extremadura…”.
From the Consistory, they allege that The Municipal Board of Latina has already expressed its “favorable position” and, in fact, “this is how it was approved in the district plenary session.” Specifically, in the Municipal Meetings of January and June all the parties represented in them assumed these equipment. The neighbors mobilized in May and September and presented a proposal to the Board on October 10 defending the incorporation of the project in the 2025 municipal budgets and the constitution of a monitoring commission between the Board and the neighborhood entities.
They also allude to the fact that the Margarita Salas Senior Center is located in the district, which serves 5,000 users, although, yes, from the Las Águilas neighborhood and part of Aluche. There are three more in Latina, plus the one that is building the Works and Equipment Area on Fuente del Tiro Street. But the neighbors, tired of waiting so many years to have one in their neighborhood, in Aluche, want “solutions now, a commitment that will be done and we want to be during the process.” That is why they will continue protesting, until they stop feeling “completely forgotten.”
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