Palma City Council is willing pay up to 20,000 euros to every family that leaves Son Banya voluntarily so that it can finish demolishing the town.
“The total dismantling of the shanty town of Son Banya will be a reality before the end of 2021,” said Antoni Noguera, Councillor of Culture & Social Benestar.
The pay off is just one of several incentives being considered by the authorities, but there are conditions attached.
The grants will only go to families that don’t have other housing, businesses or properties, who are willing to follow a social insertion plan supervised at all times by personnel from the Social Benestar area and that the children are in school.
Plans to demolish the 85 structures that are home to 90 families in Son Banya were approved by the Governing Board last January at a cost of 917,000 euros.
42 eviction notices were served between July 2018 and March 2019, but only 31 were successful, forcing 68 adults and 49 children, to leave the town.
Five families stayed because they included pregnant women or minors and did not qualify for the municipal aid program and several others are still waiting for their cases to be resolved.
As recommended by the Police, the properties will be demolished block by block instead of one house at a time. There are nine blocks in Son Banya and the work is expected to take less than a week.