The historic Casa Albergo in Sesto San Giovanni closes forever. The municipality has long since decided to put it up for sale, even if the path towards liquidation is still uncertain. It doesn’t matter if the choice to “monetise” has the immediate consequence of leaving a hundred people on the streets, including elderly people, single women with children and poor families. The right-wing administration continues despite the protests of the Tenants Union, which has called a demonstration for May 25th, which will start from the building in via Fogagnolo.
The Casa Albergo was opened in the 1950s by mayor Abramo Oldrini to provide temporary shelter for migrants who arrived from many parts of Italy to work in the Sesto factories. Giorgio Oldrini, Abraham’s son and in turn mayor of the city many years later, remembers him. “Many lived in cellars. The municipal council of the time decided to build a hotel where immigrants could find comfortable accommodation at least for a few months, while waiting to settle down. Then the mayor was Filippo Penati and he made an agreement with the San Carlo Foundation so that it could be used for cases of social relevance”, writes Oldrini on social media,
“Cardinal Carlo Maria Martini attended the new inauguration. The mayor and the right-wing council started by throwing out San Carlo, they put the house up for tender and no one showed up, they entrusted them through private negotiation to a company that apparently proved to be non-compliant. It’s not up to me to evaluate the correctness of that procedure, but the decision to sell the house and evict those who live there is the tombstone on an idea of a welcoming and supportive city. Moreover, in a situation in which the mayor boasts of having an asset of 8 million in the budget just presented”, concludes the former mayor.
