Around one hundred vacant, unused, or bricked-up public housing units will soon be allocated based on public rankings. This is the first step in a strategy developed by the City of Cagliari, in collaboration with the tenants' unions (Sunia, Sicet, and Uniat) and Area (the regional housing agency), to accelerate access to public housing and provide a more rapid response to those regularly waiting for housing.
"In this process, the result of renewed collaboration between the Municipality and the Area, which for several years had been at odds," emphasized Mayor Massimo Zedda and Councilor Anna Puddu , responsible for the Management and Maintenance Policies of ERP assets, "the right to housing and legality go hand in hand: it is a question of justice for those who, for years, have awaited their turn on the public rankings, in compliance with the rules."
A decision in favor of legality and against illegal occupations : "There is no longer any need to squat out of necessity," says Councilor Puddu, "because the administration is finally taking care of its housing stock."
The map of the housing units that will soon be reinstated is also clearly marked: from the historic center to Sant'Elia, passing through Is Mirrionis and San Michele, the Cep, and Sant'Avendrace, the monitoring "is the result of a joint effort," Anna Puddu continues, "between the Municipality, the Area, tenants' unions, and residents. This has allowed us to assess the conditions of several units, which, within a short time, after minimal maintenance, can be assigned or reassigned. The goal is to eliminate any more houses walled up due to the risk of illegal occupation."
"We're responding to a right—the right to housing—that has always been in high demand, even from unsuspecting people," explains the mayor, "who until a few years ago would never have had to turn to social services."
Today, the final ranking for the allocation of public housing includes 1,084 citizens , in addition to 111 people included in the mobility ranking. In Cagliari, the public housing stock comprises a total of 5,641 units: 3,284 are owned by the Municipality and 2,357 belong to Area.
"The need," underlined Matteo Sestu , sole director of Area, "is not only to tackle an old heritage, which unfortunately has not had the opportunity to be maintained for a long time, but also to provide answers to the many questions that exist in the rankings."
(Unioneonline/AD)
