Free loan for use against depopulation, how Occhiuto's Ripopola Calabria plan works

Via Guzzolino, Rovito, province of Cosenza: dream rendering of a historic building in the heart of the town centre. “A proposal for a family who wishes to start a new path, choosing a house linked to the heritage of the village”, we read on the Ripopola Calabria website. Eighty-two square meters, 2 rooms, 1 bathroom, first floor. All ready for assignment. You can apply.

It works like this: in the Region's program - financed with the 2021-2027 Development and Cohesion Plan - the Municipalities make unused public housing available and the Region finances the recovery works. The aspiring resident, provided - sine qua non - he comes from outside the region, can choose between three proposals in the catalogue. And he doesn't pay a single euro for the renovation. However, it contributes to reviving the spirit of the places.

Via Convento, n. 5, Caccuri, province of Crotone, 72 square meters, two rooms and a bathroom, ground floor. Evergreen bushes and pots of hydrangea in the stylized image created virtually. Looking at it now, the property needs to be completely redone. And again, Torre di Ruggiero, in the province of Catanzaro: suggestive period building in via Vittorio Veneto n. 1. Here the rooms are larger, 135 square meters, 5 rooms, first floor with garden. Virtual photography is really tempting. But there are accommodations in all provinces. Some municipalities, such as Altilia, Dipignano, Grotteria, make groups of four available.

To counter depopulation - a very complex territorial phenomenon in Calabria - and therefore the demographic contraction and the progressive weakening of the settlement, social and economic structure of many municipalities in the internal areas, the President of the Region Roberto Occhiuto thought of it like this: you don't buy the property and you don't pay the rent. You receive a house (up to 140 m2) on loan for 10 years. The municipality and the Region will then be able to adopt further forms to possibly extend the stay in the property, "through procedures that will be established subsequently and which, by way of example and not bindingly, may take the form of renewal of the loan or redemption contract at controlled prices". An experimental proposal to activate an integrated territorial policy based on the recovery of the existing.

Will the 50 accommodations in the catalog be enough - but they are only the first package - to attract segments of the population of educational, working and family age to the territories? Will those individual homes be able to revive small ghost towns, emptied of services and communities? The analysis of the project, developed within the plan, is accurate. To begin with, it highlights the programmatic-financial profile of the initiative: "ordinary section of the Development and Cohesion Plan, thematic area "Urban redevelopment", intervention sector "Building and public spaces", budget of 20 million euros.