intervention strategies for renovation of social housing estates

Social housing renovation Italy: which solutions in Dutch housing management model? Chapter 3
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a specific office is charged with receiving complaints by the tenants so that the institute can
act immediately, when possible, to solve circumstanced defects.
ASSET MANAGEMENT
Technical asset management is just based on implementation of temporary physical solutions
to solve imminent local problems. No analysis method has been developed to appraise the
best strategy of intervention per estate or per district. Even if there is an interest in
programming long term maintenance of estates in relation to the initial physical quality, the
technical departments lack the necessary tools to manage it. The financial management of
the basic maintenance is driven by an average fixed cost per dwelling.
Recently, a group of experts started direct inspections to assess technical conditions of the
existing stock, but the process is very slow and it is till unclear how the updated census will
be used in the development of intervention strategies.
Tenure management is also defined by regional laws. The approach to determine the rents is
based on the most convenient price for the family. It is calculated following a very
complicated process that considers both objective and subjective parameters. The current
minimum monthly rent per dwelling varies from a minimum of 7,75 euros to a maximum of
71,60 euros ( for a size of 60m 2 ).
The process to calculate the rents reveals many problems such as difficulties in updating the
subjective parameters, like the income level of each single family, and in assessing the prices
obtained by the objective parameters that, since they consider the cadastral position of
dwellings, are higher on the periphery.
The allocation process is managed by the municipality using the waiting list (Regione Lazio,
2000). Since the income level strongly affects the position of the list, on the top of it there is
always the same target group and the others are automatically excluded. Yet, the main
paradox is that if a dwelling is assigned to a household) that increased its income level over
the years, the family does not loose the right to live in that dwelling (a form of rent
protection). This means that the theoretical target group includes also medium to high
income families and that there is no social replacement.
As well as the rent assessment, the sale approach is based on facilitating the current tenant
who is put in the best financial conditions to purchase the flat. The cadastral department,
within the Ministry of Finance, is charged with calculating the sale price, whereas the EUKOS,
an office within the ATER, is charged with the management of the sale program. The institute
is obliged by a regional law to develop sale plans in agreement with specific financial
requirements. The plan is defined by the board of directors and approved by the region itself.
Ever since dwellings are sold, ATER remains the owner of the common spaces, until recently
the sale process revealed problems in the management of those spaces.
In Rome the squatting phenomenon is very common and represents an obstacle in the
management of the whole stock. Since social housing is considered a common asset,
squatting is not seen as a “crime” and, in many cases, the institute does not have the legal
rights to intervene. The amnesty process provided by law is a common practice and in the
end those who occupy a room just pay a cheap fee and are legitimated to stay in that
dwelling. Considering all the families waiting for an assignment since many years, this is an
iniquitous system.
It has been estimated that the arrearage is 36% for dwellings and 41% for non residential
rooms. Because of the unsatisfying quality level, people are often reluctant to pay both
monthly rent and fees for technical services like electricity, gas and water. The consequence
is that ATER runs up many debts with the bank and with the technical service companies.
As well as squatting, the arrearage strongly affects the available budget. To control this
phenomenon, the institute enabled a temporary office to recover that money saved by the
tenants starting from December, 2005. Till now, around 30 million euros has been regained,
but since only 7 millions are cash the strategy cannot structurally contribute to a recovering
of the balance.
ATER deals also with vandalism which especially affects the common spaces within the
buildings such as elevators and staircases. On January 2007, it was estimated that on a total
of 2182 equipments (elevators, chair lifts, platforms and so on) 20 were out of order of
which 17 because of vandalism.
7. C
TECHNICAL ASSET
MANAGEMENT
TENURE
MANAGEMENT
ALLOCATION
SALES
SQUATTING