ROME - The Mayor of Rome, Virginia Raggi, has taken a tough line on those who illegally reside in council homes in Rome. “Affluent occupants” have been residing in homes that “must go to those who really need it,” according to the Mayor, a year and a half into her term in office. According to a census published by the municipality of Rome, 2,000 tenants have been residing in 23,000 houses allocated for the less well-off.

 Locals continue to live in the homes that have been allocated to a parent or relative long since dead, taking advantage of a loophole in the public housing system. A total of 1,600 occupants in regions IV, V and VI in Rome have been found to be using this method.

 Several cases have been exposed recently by a team of 30 city-guard watchdogs. It has been revealed that a 40 year-old woman earns an income of 90,000 euros from renting apartments that legally should be reserved for those in need. This figure is almost five times higher than the maximum amount allowed for a building apartment for the public. The lady owns 18 residences in a building in the centre of Rome. The area she owns is prime real estate, walking distance from the landmarks of Piazza Navona and Castel Sant’Angelo.

 As reported in Il Messaggero, another landlord leaves his Porsche outside the building as he resides on the outskirts of Rome. Via Facebook, Raggi has publically shamed a resident who earns 700,000 euros a year from his 174 euro a month home just two steps from the Colosseum.

 Raggi has made it public that the government is working on a solution: “we are working on a plan [to combat] the dismantling and exploitation of all of the Capitoline buildings. There are so many cases of lousy abusive actions.”

hl