Málaga VPO Social Housing: Vox Demands Allocation Answers Vox demands the mayor of Málaga explain the criteria used to award around a hundred VPO rental flats in the Universidad neighbourhood, as excluded working families challenge the income thresholds. A list of names on a council noticeboard has become the sharpest local political story of the week. The municipal group of Vox has formally asked the mayor of Málaga to explain the criteria used to award around a hundred protected rental flats in the new Universidad neighbourhood, one of the most awaited VPO allocations the city has seen in years. The row is about transparency as much as housing. Vox councillors want the selection process set out in the open: who scored the applications, against which income thresholds, and why some candidates who looked eligible ended up on the outside. The party is also demanding a review of the economic requirements for protected rental housing after the cases of two local residents whose applications were turned down, cases Vox has adopted as proof that working families are falling through the net. A hundred flats, thousands of applicants Protected flats in Málaga do not come along often, and when they do, demand dwarfs supply. The hundred or so VPO homes in the Universidad district arrived into a city where rents have climbed year after year and where the fight for affordable housing has spilled from council chambers into the street. Camps, marches and a called general strike have all been part of the backdrop this autumn, and a snap general election on November 29 has pushed housing to the very top of the political agenda. Against that backdrop, any allocation process was always going to be scrutinised. Vox argues the scrutiny so far has not been enough. The party says the mayor owes applicants a plain explanation of how points were awarded and why the income bands were drawn where they were, and it has taken the two rejected residents' claims to the council as a matter of urgency. The wider complaint The demand for revised economic requirements is the part that could outlive this particular allocation. Vox argues the current thresholds shut out households that earn too much for protection on paper but far too little to compete on the open market, a gap families across the Costa del Sol recognise instantly. Teachers, nurses, shop workers and young couples on temporary contracts sit precisely in that space. The party has also repeated an earlier proposal: that protected housing development should follow careful planning of basic services first, so that schools and health centres are guaranteed before new VPO neighbourhoods absorb thousands of residents. That argument is not unique to Vox, and it is one the city hall will find harder to dismiss in an election season. What happens next The council now has to answer the questions in writing. Whatever explanation it gives will be measured against the two rejected applications and against the expectations of every family still waiting for a protected home. If the answers satisfy nobody, the issue is certain to surface again in the campaign for November 29. For the thousands of households on Málaga's waiting lists, the details matter more than the politics. A transparent scoring system they can understand, and income bands that reflect real wages, would change who gets a home in this city. That is the standard against which the mayor's answer will now be judged.