The Housing Agency must be an urban planning tool, no longer a welfare one. Today it is a municipal service that aims to guarantee access to housing for citizens with particular requirements and in difficult conditions.
Instead it must become a company 100% controlled by the Municipality, with financial and operational autonomy, with its own housing stock and a technical structure to operate in real estate brokerage, redevelopment and renovation, act in the free rental market and define the standards construction of private interventions.
The proposal is from Claudio Tonelli, mayoral candidate of the civic and left-wing coalition Modena Turns the Page, Unione Popolare and Possibile Modena, who relaunches the slogan ‘500 homes in five years for 500 euros’. “Housing demand has changed, different responses and new tools are needed – states Tonelli – We have gone from the demand for houses, especially in private ownership, typical of the Sixties, Seventies and Eighties, satisfied by far-sighted public policies such as Peep, to a demand for housing in rental resulting from the growing mobility of people, especially young people, is still attractive, but young people and young couples move much more than their parents and grandparents, for study or work reasons the typical family. They are looking for a single room with bathroom, a studio apartment, cohousing”. Already today and increasingly in the future, “we will need houses for rent, but it is a question that our city is unable to answer satisfactorily. Yet, there is no shortage of houses. What is missing is the trust of small owners in the current rules of the lease”.
Tonelli estimates that there are at least 3,000 vacant homes in Modena, but according to recent research by Openpolis, as many as 12,330 homes are unoccupied in the city, equal to 12.9% of the total. The few houses available for rent are expensive: one thousand-1,200 euros per month for a small apartment, 4-500 euros for a room with shared kitchen and services.
“Public residential construction has long waiting lists, while Acer struggles to redevelop its housing stock – claims the candidate for mayor of Modena, Turns the Page, Unione Popolare and Possibile Modena – This is why we need a Housing Agency capable of guaranteeing the owners from the risk of arrears”.
Tonelli does not demonize private investments, which must be remunerated, but if he becomes mayor he will fight to allocate 50% to 75% of new or regenerated housing for rent. From this point of view, the civic and left-wing coalition shares the philosophy of the intervention in the Vaciglio sector, although it can be criticized for various aspects. “In via Iotti there are accommodations with agreed rent, but the condominium expenses are very high”, reports Tonelli, who rejects the operations on the former S. Eufemia barracks and former Fonderia Corni, future university residences. “The admission methods must be regulated by the Municipality and Ergo (the regional body that offers interventions and services to students), not left to private individuals”.
