The municipal council of Santa Caterina dello Ionio, which met today in front of a large number of citizens, approved the resolution relating to the administrative reconstruction of the accommodation in the post-fire settlement in the Maltese district and the new regulation governing their management, regularisation, valorisation and possible disposal.
It is a particularly significant step, which brings order to a matter that has remained unresolved for decades and defines, for the first time, a clear and unambiguous legal framework, necessary to protect the public interest and to give perspective to a compendium of social and urban value.
From the reconstruction carried out it emerged that the accommodations were built by the Civil Protection after the fire of 29 July 1983 and transferred free of charge to the Municipality in 2006 with a public administrative deed. These properties have never been included in the public residential building system and were recognized, already in 2006 and then in 2024, as assets of the organisation’s available assets.
The resolution approved by the Council formalizes this qualification and initiates a timely survey of the accommodation, their maintenance conditions and existing legal positions, with the aim of regularizing pending situations, defining new rental contracts, producing the necessary appraisals and identifying any units potentially earmarked for sale, in compliance with current legislation.
At the same time, the new municipal regulation for the management of the properties of the Maltese settlement was approved, which establishes objective criteria for the verification of occupations and regulated amnesties, the determination of rents and sales prices, the definition of procedures for rentals and disposals, and the protection of assets, controls, responsibilities and indemnities in the event of untitled occupation. It is an operational tool that establishes certain rules, limiting administrative discretion and guaranteeing transparency, uniformity and management sustainability.
During the session, the Mayor, Francesco Severino, stated:
«Today we take an important step: we close a chapter that has remained suspended and open a new phase, in which that heritage can finally be administered with clear rules, objective criteria and full respect for legality» The session recorded the participation of numerous citizens in the session, who expressed «a signal of attention, interest and sense of community, – as also underlined by the mayor himself – which confirms how much this affair has weighed on the collective memory and how much a definitive solution was awaited.»
The Mayor himself then closed the session, highlighting: «With this provision we restore order and transparency, but above all we give the community the possibility of thinking of those places as a resource and not a problem. It is an act of responsibility towards the past and of trust towards the future of our country.”
Today’s meeting therefore marks a change of phase: after many years, the Maltese settlement’s housing comes out of a regulatory limbo and returns to an orderly administrative framework, open to processes of valorisation, regularization and social use.