Dimas Sarmiento: "The PSOE rejects the aid they themselves should be promoting from their departments in the Gran Canaria Island Council. A textbook political blunder."
The Department of Social Services of the San Bartolomé de Tirajana City Council, in response to the statements made by the PSOE (Spanish Socialist Workers' Party) regarding the Comprehensive Social Services Plan, wishes to highlight the "incoherent, opportunistic, and politically embarrassing" rhetoric of the motion presented by the Socialists regarding care for the homeless, just a few months after having voted unanimously in favor of the creation of the Comprehensive Plan itself at the plenary session last June.
Social Services Councilor Dimas Sarmiento reminds them that "the PSOE was one of the groups that supported the proposal that gave rise to the Comprehensive Plan. If they reject it now, they will have to explain why they oppose what they themselves publicly approved and celebrated."
Sarmiento emphasizes that, for the first time in the municipality's history, San Bartolomé de Tirajana has an official diagnostic report on the situation of the homeless, prepared by municipal technicians. This study reveals that 87% of the homeless people assisted are not residents of the municipality, demonstrating that the phenomenon is supra-municipal in nature and requires the involvement of the Gran Canaria Island Council and the Canary Islands Government. "We are asking for institutional collaboration because we cannot address alone a reality that affects an entire island. And what is the PSOE's response? To vote against. In other words, to reject the aid that they themselves should be promoting from their departments in the Gran Canaria Island Council. A textbook political blunder," Sarmiento stated.
A serious plan in the face of years of neglect
The Councilor for Social Services recalls that the current municipal government has achieved in just a few months what the PSOE failed to do in its entire term:
• Prepare a rigorous technical diagnosis of the situation, listing and understanding the profile of people living without a home.
• Convene a political and social consensus table.
• Present a project with a budget of 300.000 euros and a multidisciplinary team to provide care, support, and reintegration.
"When they were in power, there was no diagnosis, no plan, no resources. Today, all of that exists thanks to the work of this government. If the PSOE now calls it insufficient, perhaps it's because they're annoyed to see that we're doing what they themselves were never able to do," the councilor stated.
Regarding the PSOE's criticism of the closure of CAIPSO, Sarmiento clarified that "that center did not meet the minimum conditions required by law nor did it offer specialized care. Keeping it open under those conditions would have been irresponsible." What we have done, Sarmiento continued, is "replace improvisation with planning, welfare with strategy, and patch-ups with real solutions. That is what hurts the PSOE: that there is now a government that works with rigor, with data, and with results," he added.
The Department of Social Services will continue working on the Comprehensive Plan, as it is a living working tool, built with political and technical consensus, and will continue to be strengthened with new measures. "If the PSOE wants to contribute, let it do so with proposals, not headlines. But if it's seeking to boycott what it approved three months ago, let it explain that to the citizens," Sarmiento concluded.
