The former municipal complex, owned by a Roman real estate company, will become a residence for tourists. Carla’s eviction has been postponed with the help of ASC activists
By Leonardo Bison
July 5, 2024
There were long hours of tension and negotiations this morning in Calle dei Guardiani, Dorsoduro, where the fourth attempt to evict Carla (not her real name), the last tenant of the complex of former public housing between Ponte dei Guardiani and Calle dei Guardiani, took place. These are houses that the Municipality of Venice donated to Ca’ Foscari University in 1969, which then sold them at auction to a real estate company in 2017, which in turn sold it to a new company in 2020. Now the owner aims to build 32 mini apartments for tourists, in a building where there were originally 18 public housing units (the original plan was to make it a hotel, but this was prohibited by municipal regulations).
The case became public knowledge on June 7, at the third eviction attempt, with the intervention of activists from OCIO and Gruppo 25 Aprile. Carla’s contract expired on December 31st, but she has nowhere to go. She opposed the first two eviction attempts on her own, only later accepting the help offered by the activists. The entire building has already been a construction site for years, with the 10 families who lived there having moved away from 2018 onwards, with the invitation and help of the owners.
The Morning’s Events
The eviction was supposed to be carried out this morning with the help of the police, but starting at 7 am around fifteen activists from ASC – Social Assembly for Housing, guarded the entrance and at times attempted to mediate between the authorities that had arrived and the tenant, who is in a precarious psychophysical state – she has had a serious family bereavement for a few months – and asked for Carla to be given a municipal house in Venice, or more time to save some money to be able to pay rent alone in the city (her current monthly budget is too low).
From 8 onwards DIGOS (General Investigations and Special Operations Division, a law enforcement agency), the local police, some Carabinieri, and the representatives of the property (Immobiliare Delta S.p.A.) arrived, engaging in long dialogues with both the activists and the tenant. A total of over 10 people were prepared to carry out the eviction, but, unlike last month, things never came to open confrontation, not even verbal.
Around 11am the bailiff also arrived with the property’s lawyer, and close negotiations followed. The activists aimed to postpone the eviction as much as possible, and also to allow the tenant (who works in the tourism sector) to save up as much money as possible before having to leave the house she has lived in since she was a child. There were no social workers present, while the role of the Municipality of Venice, in the absence of other representatives of the Municipality, was played by minority city councilor Marco Gasparinetti (Terra&Acqua), who immediately “engaged” in the ongoing negotiations upon his arrival late in the morning.
After almost two hours of intense and at times hard discussion in Carla’s apartment, with activists, law enforcement, the property owner and a bailiff present, the eviction was postponed to 31 July. The owners – who purchased the building when 4 families were still living inside – had also offered three additional weeks in bed and breakfast and help with the move as well as a severance package. This morning’s starting offer, with immediate eviction, was two weeks at an inn in Marghera.
Reactions and Comments
“We avoided an eviction by arriving here at 7 and we obtained a better agreement, but it is clear that the Municipality must do its part: we cannot let everything be transformed into bnb” – explains Martina Vergnano of the Social Assembly for Housing – “The story of this property is emblematic, and it is a story that we know well; houses are taken and turned into tourist rentals, which are not regulated, unlike what is happening in other European cities.” The activists remained there until 1pm, also gaining support from some passers-by.
Carla doesn’t know if she will accept the offer. She’s scared, and wants to talk about the speculation going on over their heads: “I’ve been living in a construction site for years. Those who left did not leave Venice willingly. It is not possible to live and work like this. I was born here.” As always happens, the building, once freed from its tenants, will greatly increase in value. Daniele Busi, general manager of Immobiliare Delta, is clear, commenting on today’s events: “We are still waiting for the sentence issued by a court to be executed, we are waiting to come into possession of an asset we own. I think those present realized that the tenant will not accept any proposals.” Busi does not want to be described as a speculator: “It cannot be up to a private individual to deal with a social problem, to make up for the shortcomings of public services. We are doing our job. I didn’t invent the capitalist system: we employ more than 300 people, and we just want justice.”
Source: Venezia Today
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Statement from ASC Social Assembly for Housing
Today was a great little victory! We blocked and postponed the executive eviction of the last surviving residential apartment in the building on Calle dei Guardiani, about to be transformed into yet another hotel thanks to the auction sale of the building carried out by Ca’ Foscari University in 2017.
Ours is a concrete response to a process that seems unstoppable: we continue to talk about overtourism in Venice, while the city continues to lose population, and nothing is done to stem the phenomenon. While new forms of protection of the right to the city are being experimented with in European capitals – first of all Barcelona, which will abolish short-term rentals by 2027 – Venice is experiencing increasingly intense attacks on residential life: projects for new hotels, transportation hubs and expansions of infrastructure to accommodate greater flows of tourists — from Montiron to the S. Marta Waterfront — in the face of the ridiculous measure of the entry ticket, which is becoming established as a gigantic speculative operation that has not mitigated tourist flows one iota. And today is clear proof of how the Brugnaro city council is responsible for all this, and guilty of not wanting to find solutions for those who live here.
Today we blocked an eviction that would have taken place with the help of the public force. We guaranteed postponement until the end of July. We sat at the negotiating table so that a concrete proposal could emerge for someone who is seeing their home stolen to make room for a hotel. The biggest absentee? The Municipality of Venice. While they open the doors to Coldiretti (a large agricultural fair being held in Venice) we ask how much longer Venturini, Zuin, Brugnaro and co. can continue to ignore us citizens. There have been so many words to criminalize the occupations of vacant public houses while the buildings are left to rot; so much social stigma against those who, today, were on the front line to make up for the shortcomings of social policies in this city.
Against the emptying of Venice, another ten, one hundred, one thousand occupations! Venice lives, no more evictions! Homes for all!
Campaign For A Living Venice 