Thousands of families at risk of eviction in Italy

Thousands of families are at risk of eviction in Italy's main cities, which could cause major social unrest across the country, local authorities have announced.

In a letter recently addressed to the Italian government, housing councillors in Rome, Milan and Naples, Italy's largest metropolitan areas, asked to give an extension to evictions.

The request, the three councillors explained in the letter, was aimed at "warding off a social situation potentially unmanageable from the point of view of law and order."

According to figures cited in the letter, between 30,000 and 50,000 families throughout Italy are currently at risk of eviction.

From the outbreak of the economic crisis in 2008 to 2013, capital Rome has registered 10,000 eviction orders, followed by Naples with 4,500 and business city Milan with 4,000.

According to local reports, the economic crisis has intensified the phenomenon of illegal occupation of houses in Italy, especially among occasional workers and migrants who are unable to get a loan.

However, many families who illegally occupy flats told the local press they were forced to do so because of the long and complex procedures to obtain social housing through the waiting lists.

"My opinion is that it is possible to verify those cases which can be defined as urgent or at risk from a social point of view," Vice Minister of Infrastructure and Transport Riccardo Nencini was quoted by Rai State television as saying.

Nencini said the cases of families with very low wages or in particularly difficult social conditions will be carefully considered.

Meanwhile Minister of Infrastructure and Transport Maurizio Lupi stressed that the center-left government of Prime Minister Matteo Renzi has faced the housing emergency with big efforts.

In total the government has allocated 2.3 billion euros (2.7 billion U.S. dollars) to renovate existing public housing, build new structures and help those families in need, he said.

The extension to eviction is an old instrument which instead of solving the problem has just postponed it for years, Lupi added.

A city campaign to evict families and groups that had been illegally occupying Milan council-owned houses triggered considerable social unrest in recent weeks.

Scuffles broke out between police and citizens, with people injured in the clashes and some protesters arrested on charges of violence, resistance and assault. Endit