John Culatto
DERELICT housing in Gibraltar could become a thing of the past after a successful campaign by a Gibraltar pressure group.
Action for Housing recently took government ministers on a tour of shame so they could see the torrid conditions of mainly pre-war flats in the old town.
Their final conclusions will soon be aired on local TV .
“We visited nearly 100 flats over the course of the past year,” Action for Housing spokesman and renowned social activist Henry Pinna told the Olive Press.
“Action for Housing then invited the government ministers for housing and the environment to do an audit of the housing onsite.”
Pinna, formerly Gibraltar ombudsman, said his work has put the issue ‘on the social map’ which should finally lead to these people being rehoused by the government.
“Eventually the landlords will recover these empty sites so they can restore or rebuild them from scratch,” added Pinna.
“Otherwise the issue becomes entrenched in the different positions and it gets nowhere.”
The shocked reactions of ministers Steven Linares and John Cortes can be seen in a forthcoming episode of Viewpoint to be shown on GBC.
Pinna was recently in the news for representing the views of an illegally evicted tenant in what he believes were ‘shameful’ scenes.
The case to evict the woman and child who had run out of money was reported to the Commissioner of Police who assured the group it would not happen again.
“If the landlords want to fast-track the process, they should do so within the law by talking to the government,” he added.
