PROVINCE OF ALEXANDRIA – “Useless and discriminatory“. So do the regional tenants’ unions Sunia Cgil, Sicet Cisl and Uniat Uil they defined the social housing law approved last February by Piemonte region. According to the social partners, in fact, the measures adopted by the current council “they do not solve the serious housing emergency in our region. What has been introduced is useless both for improving the conditions of those who already live in public housing and for making the organization of Territorial Housing Agencies more efficient. Furthermore, it is discriminatory towards citizens, not belonging to the European community, who have lived in our region for years” the regional secretaries remarked Davide Masera, Giovanni Baratta and Domenico Paoli.
In the province of Alexandria there were 400 evictions carried out in 2022, as well as 1300 eviction filings,”the majority of which were due to innocent arrears”. In 2020, there were just 260 accommodations available, against over 2,500 assignment requests. Compared to approximately 5200 public housing units, approximately 8% need maintenance. Fabio Scaltrittiof the Community of San Benedetto al Porto, also highlighted the 20 reports per year from the Alessandria Hospital regarding patients discharged unfortunately without a home.
On the merits, the social partners added regarding the critical issues of the current law:
• To access public housing for citizens not belonging to the European Community, it will not be enough to have 5 years of residence, they will also have to demonstrate employment, whether employed or self-employed. It is necessary to possess this requirement both at the time of the application and at the time of any assignment: therefore, a pensioner, a mother with dependent children assisted by social services no longer have the possibility of accessing public housing.
• A reward score is expected for those who have resided in the region for 15, 20, 25 years. An Englishman who has lived in Piedmont for 20 years will be able to have 4 points more in the ranking, but if at the time of the application he has the misfortune of being unemployed he will automatically be excluded.
• Punishes those who have occupied public housing in the previous 10 years without distinguishing between occupants who have “broke down the door” and those without a title for remediable administrative reasons. The municipalities know very well that some situations of fragile families, who had occupied, have been resolved with the release of housing, by staggering the arrears payments
accrued and with new assignments accompanied by social services.
• It does not increase the allocation of the innocent arrears fund and does not widen the number of those entitled to it (as we had requested), but an extraordinary three-year fund is established for utility payments (it is not known how it will work), forgetting that the The high cost of utilities is also due to the poor organizational efficiency of the ATC which:
– they are unable to intervene promptly to fix malfunctioning systems,
– they are unable to make expense adjustments year by year,
– they don’t hold meetings to explain financial statements and estimates,
– instead they add balances over several years making payments difficult, thus increasing arrears.
• It is planned to reserve further accommodation for the police: it is unlikely that police and carabinieri will accept accommodation in difficult and degraded neighbourhoods. However, if they decide to live there once their working hours are over, they will certainly not be guardians of the staircase.
These are the most relevant changes introduced. We note with regret that none of the proposals we had made such as Sunia, Sicet, Uniat and CGIL, CISL and UIL were taken into consideration. We asked for it to be:
• eliminated the possibility of selling housing, as there is a great shortage of public apartments throughout the Region;
• provided an adequate annual allocation to gradually, but continuously, increase the provision of public housing and manage the innocent arrears fund;
• used the ISEE to place the assignees in the income brackets and to calculate the fee due;
• the percentage for accessing the social fund increased from the current 30% to 50% and the Region’s coverage quota reached 80%
• made a more inclusive law, lowering the residency requirements in the territorial area from the current 5 years to 2.
• eliminated the now obsolete reward score for those who have paid the gescal and replaced it with the seniority of contributions.
• introduced the obligation to convene meetings at least annually with the participation and vote of tenants on matters within their competence;
• a commission composed of representatives of the municipalities involved, tenants’ unions and officials of the institution was established at the ATC with the aim of examining and resolving critical arrears situations and avoiding possible forfeitures.
“These proposals of ours would have allowed a “qualitative leap” in public housing policies in Piedmont, they could have partially resolved the serious housing emergency which unfortunately continues and worsens. Improve the efficiency of the ATC and the conditions of the assigned tenants living in the ERP housing. The current majority of the Piedmont Region has decided differently and we can only forcefully express our opposition.”
