Lucha y Siesta: The shelter for women and minors who are victims of violence is at risk of eviction. An important community resource is at risk.

SHELTER FOR WOMEN VICTIMS OF VIOLENCE IN ROME

Looking at Rome with a less polished eye, one can see its contradictions, the cities within the city, the hidden Rome. And the abandoned one. Already abandoned, because, as we read on the blog abandoned Rome, which is responsible for recording the abandoned, unused and neglected places, there are many, too many, buildings, throughout the city of Rome, taken away from the community to become places of filth, rats, degradation when not refuges for micro pockets of crimeState-owned and municipal properties, places that belonged to the city when they were useful, had a designated use: depots of the transport company, ATAC, tram depots, old buildings in the region, offices or hospitals no longer in operation. Falling apart, exposed to neglect and the elements.
A huge waste of public money,opportunity and space in a city strangled by cement and drowned in debt. In which services to citizens are being cut, and everything seems to tell of the paralysis of the beautiful Eternal City.

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LUCHA Y SIESTA ANTI-VIOLENCE CENTER ROME

Sometimes, however, it happens that, on the outskirts, someone has a dream as big as the idea that supports it: recover one and make it available to women who are victims of male violence and abuse. Making it a shelter, a counseling center, a housing and social reception project, as well as support for reintegration into the workplace. This is how the space was born. Lucha y Siesta, in 2007, in the aftermath of the brutal femicide of Giovanna Reggiani, raped and murdered near Tor di Quinto station, in a wave of anger and grief, but also of the need to do something in an Italy, and in a municipality, where every year funding for anti-violence centers and the numerous shelters and support centers for abused women is reduced.

Thus, Lucha y Siesta and its many activists occupy an old disused ATAC building, they work on it without rest, and keep it standing to this day, reclaiming a wasted place and giving it back to the community: to the women who use it, but also to the children, to everyone, with countless initiatives linked to the neighborhood and the territorial dimension. From organic markets, to the tailoring courses. Everything, in Lucha y Siesta, is volunteer: from the work of the operators, appropriately trained by a team of professionals, to the activities that serve to keep the company going.

LUCHA Y SIESTA PROJECT

So much so that the occupants have calculated their commitment and the value produced for the city in terms of numbers: how much does it cost that for 11 years the home has provided shelter and support for women and minors in difficulty in their journeys towards independence and escape from violence? What is the cost, and the resulting savings for the community, for the approximately 1200 women supported in their journeys out of violence in this decade? And again, how much do they cost? 11 years of listening center, and the psychological, legal and cultural mediation support activities? What is the cost of the renovation works and maintenance carried out in the building?

The calculated costs, and therefore the savings, are enormous figures: in ten years the value produced for the city of Rome, not only symbolic, amounts to more than one billion euros.  

Additionally, Lucha Y Siesta manages, on its own, the 60% of places to accommodate women emerging from situations of violence throughout the municipal area. An occupied building, yes, but one that has been amply repaid over the years.

TO KNOW MORE: To stop the massacre of women—one femicide every 72 hours—we don't need proclamations. Rather, how is it possible that 85 million in anti-violence funds are almost entirely frozen?

WOMEN'S HOUSE LUCHA Y SIESTA

It happens, however, that after an endless quarrel, theCapitoline Transport Company With a budget in the red and in an attempt to restore its coffers, it decides to ask for all the properties it owns back, regardless of their use or the added value they have brought to the area. Among the many, there is also the two-story building with well-kept garden which was once dilapidated and now houses women and children who deserve another chance and a life free from threats and violence. They call her “temporary enhancement”, and it's an ambiguous formula to cover up the intent to once again strip away value from the public, the community, and its citizens, leaving it, if all goes well, in the hands of investors and financial operators interested in redeveloping the building with a view to selling it. If all goes badly, it will once again be abandoned, twice depriving Rome of one of its most important assets. listening and support points for women more recognized and now authoritative.

The 2011 municipal resolution, which essentially gives ATAC the right to re-appropriate the patrimonial real estate assets, concludes as follows: «[…] also with the aim of improving the urban structure of the city, the quality of life and producing social inclusion». The girls of Lucha y Siesta, the women and minors who live there risk finding themselves without property. And it matters little if this place reborn and recovered produces value for the territory, is one hybrid space for reflection, sharing and construction as well as a point of reference for all those who live in the Lucio Sestio-Cinecittà quadrantThe Capitoline Hill itself, a few months ago, recognized their important work and social value. Adding insult to injury.

(Featured image and accompanying text taken from Lucha y Siesta Facebook page)

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