The Junta is launching a pilot scheme to allow social housing tenants without jobs to pay their rent via community service, instead of cash. They get a voucher for the value of their work which they can then redeem against the value of their rent.
About 10% of the 80,000 households who live in government owned “council houses” are currently defaulting on their rent because not one person in the home has an income.
The idea is simple: if you have no cash, you carry out community service to the value of your rent each month. Otherwise, out on your ear and look for a nearby bridge to lodge under (not much space left there, I’m told).
The Junta is also planning to create employment, in a roundabout manner, by updating the aforementioned council houses, most of which are actually late 70’s and early 80’s blocks of flats in deprived urban areas – 60% of the homes were built before 1979. They are falling apart and have absolutely no energy efficiency or modern touches.
So 80.8 million euros will be spent on updating these homes next year, or 1010€ a home.
Someone has already suggested knocking them down and moving the tenants into some of the 700,000 empty new build properties lying vacant across Andalucia, but the Minister dismissed this idea as “difficult to implement”.