Milan Evictions
The city of Milan continues to forcibly evict Roma families at great public expense, in defiance of national law and the fundamental human rights of these people. This is a stark reminder of the systemic lack of legal protection for these vulnerable groups in Italy and other EU member states.
The Milanese housing system is a complex network of social, economic, and political factors that contribute to the housing precariousness of poor and working class people. These include, among other things, the deterioration of the real estate market; the increased use of rent control in order to ensure affordable housing; and, most importantly, the lack of access to decent and safe housing for all.
As the crisis of the real estate market deepened in recent years, it became increasingly difficult for tenants to make their rents and meet their other obligations to the landlord. This resulted in a dramatic increase in the number of sfratto (evictions) requests. In Milan, there were 32,249 sfratto requests made in 2015; a 60% increase over the previous year.
Milan Evictions of Roma Families
Those that were evicted are often forced to stay in inadequate and often illegal shelters, which can be dangerous and indecent. Families are sometimes rehoused in apartments owned by Aler, the state agency that oversees public housing in Milan.
This policy is causing many Roma families to be homeless in the city, with some families being evicted as frequently as twenty times in one year. This has exacerbated the lack of adequate housing for these families, with some families being placed in substandard accommodation or even living in their cars or in shelters run by social services.
When a family is evicted they may apply for an Order to Show Cause (OTSC). This allows the tenant to go before the court again and state their case in order to appeal the eviction. If the judge finds in the tenant’s favor, a stay is granted.
In Milan, evictions are frequently conducted without prior consultation with the affected families and in the absence of alternative housing. This is a serious violation of the European Convention on Human Rights and other international standards that protect families facing eviction.
It has been reported that the eviction of a group of Eritrean and Ethiopian refugees and asylum seekers from a building on the Bacula overpass in Milan was carried out in August without any advance notice or other arrangements for adequate alternative housing. The majority of the people who lived there left on the 19th, but others remained to protest.
On the 24th, police escorted the remaining residents out of the building and to a nearby square. This was not the first time that squatters had been evicted from the site, which has become a refugee camp.
The eviction of the Eritrean and Ethiopian families from the Bacula overpass was only the latest in a series of evictions by local authorities that have been taking place for several months in the same location. At the same time, other Roma families who have been forcibly evicted from the same place in previous years have returned and are again threatened with eviction.