Campaign For A Living Venice

Councilor Gasparinetti: “We need solutions to keep people from moving away, the demand for homes here is strong”. Venturini: “The ERP call for applications assigned more than 50 homes to those who were entitled”. There has also been a complaint filed with the Corte dei Conti

By Antonella Gasparini

13 April, 2021

Mestre and the cities of the Municipality of Venice are as concerned about the loss of residents as much as they are in the historic center. The population counters in the lagoon periodically mark the slow hemorrhage, while on the mainland (Mestre, Marghera, Favaro, Chirignago and Zelarino) citizens’ committees and associations say that they are worried that they will no longer recognize the face of their cities. “There are many factors – says Andrea Sperandio of the group Mestre Mia – The city is perceived as dangerous or less attractive. But is it is also more expensive for businesses, for example, which can save 50-60% of their costs by moving to other nearby towns.

The call for a Commission

Yet, says city Councilor Marco Gasparinetti (of the list Terra e Acqua), “there is no lack of demand for public housing. This is clear from the list of over 2000 applicants to the ERP call for applications, formalized at the end of 2020”, and there would be more than 1000 city housing units that are waiting to be assigned, up to 4,000 if the ATER homes were included. “At the beginning of this year, on 6 January, I asked president Nicola Gervasutti of the seventh council commission (of which I am vice-president) to call a session on housing and the assignment of homes, including private homes that have remained empty through the pandemic. But I have not received a response. Instead of waiting for Godot – he said – following the city regulations I collected signatures from a third of the councilors (all of the opposition signed on) and requested the commission”. In addition, on the same subject, Gasparinetti has presented a complaint to the Corte dei Conti with the goal of verifying the possibility of the charge of financial damage to the state.

“From me there is maximum collaboration – replies Councilor Gervasutti – At the beginning of May there will be a commission, while in the meantime on 21 April we will discuss the ecobonus. The intention was to put a general focus on public real estate assets, on the presence of ATER and of the associations, but there are time restraints and pointed those out”.

State of the art

Other than the assignment of 46 homes at Murano, which followed a specific call for applications, and the soon to be completed delivery of another 16 apartments also on the island, more than 50 of the ERP homes have been assigned in the historic center and on the mainland, explains Councilor for Social Policy Simone Venturini. “Gradually as the houses are fixed up they must be given to the rights holders, and the list of applicants remains valid for two years”. According to Gasparinetti, 875 families from the historic center and 1,351 from the mainland have requested public housing. “Many of these people face eviction very soon”, says the councilor for Terra e Acqua, and if on one hand over the course of 2020 the City of Venice lost 2,733, the populations of other cities in the Metropolitan area have grown. “We have to try and think about how to keep and attract residents in the whole Municipality; we cannot remain passive spectators to depopulation”, he concluded.

Source: Venezia Today