20 July 2006

The right to a home

Yesterday I wrote to the President of the Council, Romano Prodi, to the Minister of the Interior, Giuliano Amato to the Minister of the Economy and Finance, Tommaso Padoa Schioppa. The Bersani decree, decree 233 of 4 July 2006 is about to be made a law. I asked them to insert a clause that defers for three months the conditions for eviction in the cities with more than a million inhabitants (Milano, Rome, Naples). This was fixed by the decree of 1 February 2006 and was converted to law n. 86 on 1 February 2006.

This arrangement involves no costs to the State accounts as it is possible to use financial resources set aside by previous legislation but not yet utilised.
The resources available are about 99 million Euro and will be distributed according to a decree from the Ministry of Infrastructure, to the cities that are the centres of metropolitan areas to help that part of the population that is in particular conditions of economic and social disadvantage.

A home has changed from being a social right to being a luxury. Values of the buildings and rents have gone up in recent years in an indiscriminate way. The government can intervene and must do so. It must establish a permanent observatory to monitor the price of property and to take steps to limit unjustified increases.

Posted by Antonio Di Pietro in Society