Housing and Homelessness in Contemporary Rome - Global Rome: Changing Faces of the Eternal City - page 54

cal left-wing activist was killed during a clash between police and squatters. in
the mid-1970s, there were four thousand squatted apartments in Rome (Comitati
autonomi operai di Roma 1976). The political counterparts recognized as respon-
sible for the lack of housing were identified as: the builders' association (acer),
real-estate firms linked to fiat, the banca Nazionale del lavoro, and insurance
firms (Comitati autonomi operai di Roma 1976).
The situation changed in the 1980s, after the integration of the old borgate
within the city, when the need for housing led many people to squat permanently,
not as a means to negotiate with authorities. Coordinamento cittadino lotta per
la casa (Citizens' Committee for the fight for housing) was created in 1988, and
350 apartments were squatted in san basilio. in the 1990s, the locus of squat-
ting, particularly for the movimento di lotta per la casa, was in abandoned public
buildings such as schools (fifty schools were squatted by the movement). but,
in september 1993—during Rutelli's center-left administration—the Coordina-
mento cittadino lotta per la casa C occupied the federimmobiliare complex in
ostia, three large apartment blocks generated by speculation and abandoned for
over ten years. This was the first occupation which involved many foreign im-
migrants (approximately 40 percent of the 220 squatters represented nineteen
different nationalities) after the occupation of the pantanella former pasta factory
at porta maggiore in 1990. This marks the development of an intercultural social
movement in a context where the right to housing for migrants is not recognized
in italy. The most recent case is the metropoliz squat organized by the blocco
precario metropolitano (precarious metropolitan block) in Via prenestina, since
march 2009.
in 1999, the association Diritto alla casa (Right to housing) was created (and
became action in 2002), denouncing real-estate speculation and the complic-
ity of the city administration in not providing housing for a large share of the
population. to complete the picture, it is worth bearing in mind that other as-
sociations also operate in Rome: Comitato inquilini del centro storico (historic
Center tenants' Committee), Comitato popolare di lotta per la casa (popular
Committee for the housing struggle), Comitato obiettivo casa (Committee for
housing objective), unione inquilini (tenants' union). many associations have
networked in recent years to advance joint requests and protests.
some positive results have been achieved. for example, in september 1999,
a “protocol on emergency housing” ( Protocollo sull'emergenza abitativa ) was
ratified in Rome, providing 170 billion lire (approximately 85 million euros) to
purchase new housing and more funding for six projects and other self-recovery
initiatives in various suburbs. approval and implementation is time-consuming,
however, and the housing crisis was intensifying. in 2005, the municipality rati-
fied Resolution 110 on Rome's housing emergency ( Deliberazione Programmatica
sulle politiche abitative e sull'emergenza abitativa nell'area comunale romana ),