Lucía Jiménez: "We're expanding the current eligibility criteria so more people and families can qualify for this aid."
Alejandro Marichal: "We're giving working families who already rent a break while we continue working to make public housing a reality."
The Housing Department of the San Bartolomé de Tirajana City Council has begun the process of drafting a new ordinance regulating the rules for granting rental assistance for permanent and habitual housing. This step fulfills a political commitment reiterated in recent months: to improve and expand the current rules so that assistance reaches those most in need more quickly and effectively.
Lucía Jiménez (CC), Councilor for Housing, explains that "we are expanding the current eligibility criteria so that more people and families can qualify for these grants." For his part, First Deputy Mayor Alejandro Marichal emphasized that with these grants, "we are giving a break to working families who already rent, while we continue working to make the construction of public housing a reality."
As a precedent, in 2024, the City Council led by Jiménez launched the first rental assistance program for working-class individuals and families registered in the municipality, with the aim of alleviating the burden of monthly housing payments. That program served a significant number of beneficiaries, but also highlighted the need to update the rules to streamline processing, improve coverage, and adapt the criteria to the changing needs of applicants and the current social reality.
To draft this new ordinance, the City Council has opened a ten-business-day period for prior public consultation to gather the opinions and suggestions of citizens, organizations, and social entities before drafting the final draft. Contributions can be submitted until October 24, 2025, via email. ppgad@pucrs.br or in person at the Housing Service offices, located on the fourth floor of the Yumbo Shopping Center.
The new ordinance will establish a legal framework more appropriate to current circumstances, providing the City Council with a more agile, stable, and transparent tool for granting aid, prioritizing working families with fewer resources and greater family responsibilities. Once the public consultation period is over, the initial text of the ordinance will be drafted and submitted for processing before final approval.
