The red zone photographed by “Disarming Poverties”, the report on poverty and social exclusion of the Diocesan Observatory of Poverty and Resources edited by Enrico Pistorino, cannot ignore the problems that concern the housing emergency. It dominates in the most populous neighborhoods and the socio-cultural level of the territory is also linked to it. In the city there are an estimated hundred homeless people who live on the streets by choice or are guests of dormitories and reception facilities. It is not an excessive number in proportion to the numerous associations present in the area capable of offering services to the marginalized.
From the report it emerges, however, that migrants also consider Messina unattractive, preferring to move to cities that offer more opportunities. In 2025 (data updated to 15 September), 227 minors were registered, all male, unaccompanied, hosted in reception facilities from which they often leave voluntarily. In the three-year period 2023-2025, 534 foreign minors fled from host residences.
The housing emergency that impoverishes one territory more than another, as well as the higher population density as in the case of the vast and branched district of the Third Municipality, finds its causes in long-standing problems.
In this case, the most serious is linked to the presence of a high concentration of slums which also produces a high rate of school dropout and employment. «In numerous areas of the Third District – points out the municipal councilor Libero Gioveni – from Camaro San Luigi to Maregrosso, via Rosso da Messina, Bisconte, Ariella district, Camaro San Paolo and many others, shantytowns persist and the number of Erp dwellings is equally conspicuous, think of the 189 dwellings in Bisconte or the Case Gialle in Bordonaro, where a good part of the families live who are former residents of the rehabilitation area and therefore do not belong to wealthy areas. I believe – continues the exponent of Fratelli d’Italia – that the alarming data on poverty presented by Caritas make it immediately necessary to reflect on the causes linked to geographical subdivisions and heterogeneous characteristics of the various territories. I believe that economic poverty – he adds – is also influenced by the absence of professional training for young and future fathers of families, who are denied the possibility of learning a trade and having an income and therefore a certainly better social status”.
