“Our priority is to guarantee dignified housing to those who are entitled to it.” This was written in a statement by the Commissioner’s Structure for the redevelopment of Messina which, as an institution, must respect “equality and social justice, without ever losing sight of the fact that we are all at the service of a community and not vice versa”.
With the aim of providing answers to eligible families, the sub-commissioner has in fact signed provisions which concern “those who appear to be illegally occupying a shack. We want to clarify this point out of respect both for the families in good standing who have been waiting for a home for decades and for the city which sees in the rehabilitation an opportunity for redemption”.
“We have carefully, sensitively and with a sense of fairness assessed the cases of families in Via Taormina who request a home despite not having the required requirements”, writes the commissioner’s office, entering into the merits of a hot issue that has taken center stage in the city in recent weeks. “For the family with a very fragile person, an exemption will be signed – continues the press release. As regards the remaining families, ArisMe has carried out investigations into the existence or otherwise of the requirements required for the assignment of a home. Based on the ArisMe note, there are families who have already been assigned other homes (in one case with a report of delivery of an apartment in February and in a second case with a home assigned by union decree of April 2016) and a family who is registry office in another house. Two other families have not presented documentation proving their presence in the barracks in via Taormina before 2018”.
Despite this, the cases will be evaluated by the Municipality of Messina to find solutions in the context of the housing emergency. “In the same way we read again – every single specific case that arises will be addressed by this office with sensitivity and above all humility, without setting ourselves up as knights without blemish and without sin (perhaps!) but we cannot convey the message that those who are already assigned a house can then be assigned a second or why not a third. The key principle is: a shack is an accommodation. Otherwise we risk a return to forms of bad customs of the past that we hoped to have left behind”.
There are new house assignments scheduled in the next few days in other rehabilitation areas and “we cannot change criteria from area to area, with exceptions that are not fair for those who are waiting in silence and with trust in the institutions. We must respect the real and demonstrable rights of those who have been living in slums since before 2018. Allowing those who do not meet the requirements to overtake those in the legitimate ranking is a signal that puts social stability and the path of rehabilitation according to rules of equity at risk doing injustice to those who based their behavior on respect for the rules”.
From February to today, the Commissioner’s Structure has carried out work whose results are contained in the report delivered to the Parliamentary Commission for the Suburbs and which anyone can consult.
THE NUMBERS
From January to the end of October, 95 houses were purchased to which another 38 were added by the end of the year and finally another 8 which the National Agency for Assets Confiscated from the Mafia handed over, thanks to a protocol signed in May, to the Commissioner’s Structure.
In 2024, 86 apartments were purchased, in 2023 the total number of apartments purchased was 60.
At the moment, ordinary and extraordinary maintenance work is underway in 92 properties to equip them with all comforts before handing them over to families.
On November 24th the construction works of 60 homes in Fondo Basile will be delivered.
By the end of the year we will proceed with the start of the construction site for the 44 apartments in Fondo Saccà.
Redevelopment works are underway in via delle Mura, Salita Tremonti and in via Macello Vecchio.
In four rehabilitation areas the bulldozers are demolishing the shacks or they are being reclaimed (Largo Diogene, Ariella district, via Taormina, Saccà fund); in another 4 areas the clearing has been completed and the areas are being handed over to the Municipality; in another 7 ArisMe is proceeding with the definition of the rankings and where the censuses have not been completed it is carrying out the final phases.
The areas in which it will be possible, after the assignment of the new housing, to start demolition have been identified.
The commissioner offices are also working for Magnolia Park and the Camaro Sant’Antonio amphitheater and for the restoration of the historic shack.
With this spirit of service and sense of the institutions we will work until 31 December 2025 in the sole interest which is what the 2021 special law has indicated: the liberation from the slums.