City officials in Rome Italy have created a temporary ‘solution’ to their Gypsy ‘problem’ and in doing so have created another problem. A Gypsy encampment, set up just outside the city, has been deemed to be illegal and an ‘eyesore’ to the locals.
In February, four children died in their sleep as a fire tore through a shack in the illegal camp, prompting the mayor to promise that the camps would be torn down and safer ones built.
The mayor’s decision to build, or have built, ‘safer’ accommodations is a very humanitarian gesture. But, he says he does not want to send a signal of “indiscriminate acceptance” that might result in more homeless in the capital. This means his humanitarianism only goes so far.
The cities interim plan is what has Gypsy families up in arms. The plan is to provide shelter for the women and children of these families, not the men. Despite the magnanimous nature of providing safer housing for Rome’s residents, the fact that families will be torn apart is not acceptable.
This is clearly an attempt by city officials to covertly ‘urge’ these roving families to move away from Rome to become the problem of some other city.
Rome is handling the ‘problem’ of homelessness much the same way every city around the world does, push it off onto someone else.
Of course, the obvious solution would be to provide jobs that would allow them to buy affordable homes. But we all know this just doesn’t happen. Short of some miracle solution, the city should allow them to live in their makeshift village as they have chosen. If officials are worried about crime then have the police force do their job and patrol and investigate. Tearing down their homes and breaking up their families is not the humanitarian solution the mayor wishes to convey.
