Nin Rosa has been residing in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria for more than 20 years, where he lives with his dog. Antonio Pérez has been in the base port condition for three years for three years. They pay about 3,000 euros a year for the bearing of their ship, with water and light; about 250 per month. “It has been my life project,” confesses Nin, who retired at 60 for a health issue and has always been linked to the sea. Now, they are some of the people affected by eviction threats. For days notifications of the Port Authority have been coming where they are urged to stop residing there. They warn that they will not give up. “From here, they will not move” and “we are not going to let our ships take,” they warn.
The letter that both have received states that they are given a period of ten days to “proceed to release the mooring position and leave the dock, under the warning that if they did not, the port authority, prior judicial authorization will withdraw the vessel and deposit it on the ground to its coast”. In the letter they are warned that they face fines of up to 60,000 euros. In some cases the period of ten days has already been fulfilled and those affected have been put in the hands of lawyers. “From here only a judge gets me,” insists Antonio Pérez.
This same week, the police were looking for the sports dock to different people to deliver the notification, a document that for Antonio Pérez, who is an official of the Treasury, does not adapt to the correct way in which it must be notified. “This has been notified irregularly,” he says, while adding that no deadline has been given to make allegations. At the moment, several people like them have resorted to this notification and the Port Authority now has three months to answer. But they insist that they are not going here.
On the other side of the dock, next to your dog and friends rest in a bank another man also called Antonio. This citizen of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria and a point to turn 76 tells how this situation is causing anxiety and mental health problems. After speaking with her doctor phone about what is happening to her, she explains to this writing that she has been delivered to the sea for 50 years with her ship, where speaker. He has a house but has left it to his son because his life has always been linked to the dock. He points out that he was forced to sell his old ship and now resides in a smaller one and ensures that he has paid the bearing until June, but since the eviction news sounds in a sinvivir.
The Port Authority of Las Palmas has indicated that about 18 letters have been issued but that they do not have quantified the exact number of people residing at the dock. Antonio Pérez insists that they are tens.
From the Port Authority, of which she is President Beatriz Calzada (CC), they emphasize that there is no new project at the sports dock that forces them to make this decision to dislodge the people who reside in it. “The dock will continue the same, with the use of nautical-sports dock,” they insist. And they add that “the State Ports Law and the Merchant Navy collects in its article 72 the uses of the Public Public Domain, and within those uses there is no residential use.”
They also emphasize from the authority that “the public administration has to ensure the public use of that port land, and it is what we are doing. In fact, a long time ago some action was made in this regard. The sports dock is not a residential neighborhood of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, but is a marine for nautical-sports purposes. That is its end and thus will continue to be judicially it is determined that from now on that is another neighborhood of the city. ”
The official and affected Antonio Pérez disagrees with this proceeding from the Port Authority and adds that in that article 72 it is not forbidden to reside in a ship. He states that what is expressly prohibited is “those occupations and uses of the port public domain that are destined for buildings for residence or room, to the air line of high voltage electric lines and commercial advertising through posters or fences, acoustic or audiovisual media located outside the buildings”. Therefore, he insists that there are no buildings in the port and that the ships “are not infravy.”
On January 22 of this year, a port ordinance for the management, use and exploitation of the minor vessels in the port of Las Palmas was published in the BOC. It does notice that “the use of the mooring post for recreation vessels destined for housing or habitual residence is strictly prohibited, understood as such those in which the person lives effectively and permanently.”
Pérez highlights that “to start this is not a sports dock, this is a shelter within the port of Luz and Las Palmas” and adds that after these movements of wanting to evict so many people is the intention of “privatizing this installation” since it coincides over time with that project. In addition, he insists that right now it is a public installation that depends on ports of the State and as long as it does not change entity it will be governed by the State Ports Law.
Likewise, the affected means that many of the people residing in these ships like him or Nin Rosa are registered there, “then who has mounted this mess?” He asks. Both emphasize that they have the condition of a base port and that this gives them some rights and do not understand why they are urged to abandon it so that other boats occupy those pantalanes.
Both do not understand how this situation is only taking place in this port, and does not happen in others in Spain. “My option was to live on a ship, with what I have spent on it I could have bought a house on the front line,” Nin Rosa remarks. Antonio Pérez, on the other hand, emphasizes that he sold his home to opt for this option because it is “a great alternative” and insists that “skinny favor is done to the image we have in front of the nautical in the world” since people from different countries arrive at this port to whom they are being notified and do not understand the content of those letters. “This morning he called me a German who did not understand what was happening and that the police wanted to notify him.”
The reality on this dock is very diverse. Many people see in a boat a way of life to be connected to the sea and believe that it is an option that the Canarian population should not be deprived. However, there are also cases of people who have no choice and live in very small ships. In any case, an eviction would complicate the options of all people due to the difficult situation of housing in the Canary Islands. Due to uncertainty, people who live at the dock say that there are those who are leaving and selling their ships. “Every person who leaves is a victory for them (in reference to the Port Authority),” says Pérez.
“If space is missing the solution cannot be based on throwing people,” says Pérez. “If the port were well managed, it would be 70% with the condition of a base port and 30% in transit and there would be no problems when the ARC is celebrated, for example.” He says in reference to the regatta that sets for America and that every year forces to release boats from the area.
“My neighbors are Swedes, Germans, Danes, but there are also many canaries,” says Antonio Pérez, who adds that the message that is being given is that of “You are not welcome here” and adds that it seems that you want to turn this dock into a kind of Saint-Tropez or other elitist ports of the world. In addition, it emphasizes the importance of the public nature of the dock that allows, for example, a fundamental sailing school to teach this sport to young people from the Canary Islands or that there are affordable attractions.
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