Housing and planning help desk for Denia

The first one-stop-shop housing office in the Marina Alta has opened in Denia.

It will offer help with everything from emergency accommodation and affordable rent through to planning and renovations. Part of the Xaloc network, which is expected to grow to seven branches in the next year or so, the service includes general advice, help for residents facing eviction or repossession, information about grants for refurbishment, maintenance, adaptation and repair, schemes for assistance with rent or buying for young adults, help with finding somewhere to rent or buy, and arranging social housing.

Forms for all types of transactions and financial benefit programmes will be on hand at the Xaloc office, and assistance will be given in completing these where needed. Renovations, ownership, and energy efficiency are also areas the Xaloc network can help with. The Xaloc advice centre will not merely be reactive, attending to residents who go there or contact its staff – it will also run proactive information campaigns and work on acquiring social housing.

Once a town purchases or rents a property to use as a council house, it will remain as such forever, meaning the network of local authority homes can grow but never shrink and will be safe from developers, professional landlords, investors and speculators.

The Xaloc scheme is founded on the principal – contained within Spain’s Constitution – of the fundamental right to dignified housing, noted regional land, property and planning councillor Rubén Martínez Dalmau.