Former Councilor of Urban Planning and 14 more people charged in the Alicante protected housing scandal

ValenciaThe judge investigating the allocation of protected housing in Alicante has summoned 15 people to testify as defendants and seven as witnesses. Among those investigated are the former Councilor for Urban Planning of the city, Rocío Gómez, the head of the Contracting Service of the City Council, María Pérez-Hickman, the municipal architect, Francisco Nieto, the sole administrator of the promoting cooperative, Francisco Ordiñana, and the head of the Protected Housing section of the Department of Housing, Employment, Youth and Equality, Roberto Palencia. The five must testify on May 20.

This is the magistrate's first action in a case investigating a real estate development that has benefited up to five PP officials, several employees of the City Council and the Generalitat, and in which the circumstance is added that more than a dozen families with several members who have been granted apartments reside in the building. Among them are even three siblings and two cousins aged between 18 and 24, a particularly striking fact, given that the first steps of the project date back to 2018, which would have required their registration at 14 or 15 years of age.

, in 2005 Barcala's wife and her sister-in-law already obtained protected housing to rent it in another development of public housing.

A report prepared by the Local Police of Alicante at the request of the court investigating the case revealed that in up to 46 of the 140 homes in the building named Les Naus, there are no registered residents, and that in many others there is one registered resident but "more people" living there. The document also states that 12 non-adjudicated persons reside in six apartments. It even indicates that there are 26 mailboxes with a neglected appearance, with abundant uncollected advertising, a circumstance that would suggest that the homes are empty. All these data would indicate possible infractions because the regulations for the granting of the apartments require the documentation of all cohabitants to be included, require that the awarded apartment be used as a primary residence, and stipulate that the annual income of the family unit must not exceed 54,600 euros per year according to the new limit set by the PP - previously it was 48,000.

The details provided by the police add to the facts that uncovered the controversy: that the then councilor for Urbanism, Rocío Gómez, was the beneficiary of an apartment; that three other apartments went to the two children and the nephew of the Director General of Internal Organization, Public Procurement and Fund Management, María Pérez-Hickman; that two more went to the municipal architect Francisco Nieto and the wife of the chief of staff of the Ministry of Tourism, Miguel Ángel Sánchez, and that another went to the wife of the technician from the Ministry of Housing who validated the files.

As a result of the scandal, Gómez, Pérez-Hickman, and Sánchez have already left their posts. In addition, two municipal architects and a technician from the territorial department of Housing in Alicante have been disciplined. This is not the case of the mayor of the city, Luis Barcala, who has refused to resign and whom Vox has prevented from being censured. According to Eldiario.es, in the year 2005 Barcala's wife and his sister-in-law already obtained an affordable housing unit to rent out in another development of public housing.