ATA has clearly touched a nerve in other cities which are experiencing housing crises of their own, as demonstrated by support for ATA’s campaign from organizations and officials from Bologna, Florence, Milan, Naples, Padua, Rimini, Sicily, Trento, Trieste and Turin.
The Alta Tensione Abitativa movement was born in Venice but has always had its sights set on the national horizon, with a proposed law that would allow regulating short-term rentals in Italian cities with high housing tension. Just a year after its inception, ATA has clearly touched a nerve in other cities which are experiencing a housing crisis of their own, as demonstrated by support for ATA’s campaign from organizations and officials from Bologna, Florence, Milan, Naples, Padua, Rimini, Sicily, Trento, Trieste and Turin.
The quotes that follow are messages of support that were sent from many of these cities in advance of ATA’s international meeting in Venice on March 18. They are eloquent testimony of the critical need for action on residential policy and the regulation of short-term rentals: not just in Venice, but in cities all over Italy, where families, workers and students are being forced out of the rental market.
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“Today more than ever we need rules that intervene to safeguard the delicate balance between the promotion of sustainable tourism, the wealth from which should be redistributed in our cities, and the right of the citizens to the livability of the city. We must reverse the trend and protect the right to housing and the city for families, workers and students.”
–Emily Clancy, Vice-mayor of Bologna
“We can’t wait any longer! Regulate short-term rentals to design new residential policies, to combat homelessness, to intervene on evictions, and to protect housing and the life of the cities. Rimini also supports the ATA Campaign, to put housing back at the center!”
–Casa Madiba Network e Associazione Rumori Sinistri onlus of Rimini
“ATA’s proposal can finally break through the thousand obstacles that are standing in the way of any attempt to govern the phenomenon of short-term rentals. A rule to apply to the municipalities with high housing tension, to limit the proliferation of tourist rentals, which are have a negative impact on the lives of thousands of citizens.”
-Laura Grandi, SUNIA Toscana
“Bologna is a city where overtourism is a growing trend and is causing a profound housing crisis due to a serious lack of housing on the market. AirBnb is a leading actor of urban development in this regard. We must put a stop to the speculation and reverse the trend underway to give some breathing room to a city that is starving for spaces for living and residence: for this reason we support the Alta Tensione Abitativa campaign for the regulation of short-term rentals”
–LUnA- Laboratorio Universitario d’Autogestione
“A home is the center of people’s lives, and it must be at the center of policy of the municipalities, of the region and of the state. And the right to housing must come before the marketplace.”
-Marta Nalin, City Councilor Coalizione Civica Padova
“Trento is not Venice, yet the theme of housing tension is not foreign to our context. Difficulties for workers, families and students accessing rentals on the free market, from the prohibitive costs and the high obstacles. Policies for public building are insufficient in method and in the size of the offering. The proliferation – we are a tourist city and territory – of short-term rentals has had consequences that you well know. Therefore we need policies appropriate for the times in which we live, sufficiently structured to hold the frayed panorama of needs together and to recover tools capable of restoring balance in a real estate market that today is completely out of control.”
–Federico Zappini, City Councilor Trento
“In Trieste the housing tension caused by tourists has not yet reached the levels of other Italian cities: contexts such as that of Venice are the concrete example of the fact the preventing the drift into real estate speculation is better than trying to cure it. We need, at all levels, renewed residential policies in defense of the right to live in our cities with dignity.”
–Riccardo Laterza, City Councilor Trieste
“We need to regenerate our cities not so much and not only in their “hard” parts, made of stone and glass, but also in their “soft” structures, made of relationships, encounters and redistribution of opportunity. This is the true “wealth” of an urban fabric, in its ability to be the container of community, and not only a flow of resources for the few.
I consider the battle for the regulation of short-term rentals to be one of the cornerstones of the greater challenge for the right to the city, as well as one of the most appropriate occasions to demonstrate that the lessons of Covid were not in vain, leaving only mourning and crises rather than also an opportunity for radical change.”
-Marta Bonafoni, Councilor, Lazio Region
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Source: ATA Facebook page
Campaign For A Living Venice 