From Largo Diogene to the Taormina district, passing through the Ariella district and via delle Mura. In the coming weeks, the Commissioner’s Structure for the rehabilitation of Messina’s slums, led by the president of the Sicilian Region Renato Schifani, will start new construction sites in the city to recover some degraded areas and make them usable again.
Particularly important is the delivery, scheduled for Monday 13 October, of the works in via Taormina at the corner of via Fermi, where the shacks will be demolished in an area hit by a fire in recent months. With this intervention, the clearing of a large area of the second slum continues. After October 20th the bulldozers will arrive in another lot in the Taormina district, via Quinto Ennio, where the transfer of 32 families to new homes has been completed. In this case, the demolition of approximately 90 shacks is planned.
From 23 October bulldozers will also be in the Ariella district, while the first phase of demolition in Largo Diogene is about to end. From the 27th of this month, the redevelopment works will begin in Via delle Mura and the demolition of the last remaining shack. At the end of all the activities, the bulldozers will have removed approximately 150 structures.
«With great commitment and determination – declares President Schifani, in his capacity as Recovery Commissioner – we are pursuing a dual objective. Not only, in fact, do we want to clear entire areas that are currently in conditions of extreme degradation, but also redevelop them and return them to the city with a view to urban and social regeneration, demonstrating that concrete change is possible.”
Regarding the news relating to five families in the Taormina district, not entitled to the assignment of new housing, the sub-commissioner for recovery Santi Trovato clarifies: «We have already asked ArisMe to carry out the necessary investigations into the existence or otherwise of the requirements established by law. In particular, the situation of the family with a disabled person will receive maximum attention and will be addressed with due sensitivity and priority in an institutional table that will allow us to identify the best solution to help those who are suffering, in addition to housing hardship, also the suffering linked to the fragility of a family member”.