THE BARRACKS

We took a ride over to Menfi the other day on our way shopping in Castlevertrano. The newspapers said that the old post earthquake housing in the town was coming down, finally, after 38 years. There were thirty or so families still living in this housing, some of whom had bought the property from others as families who had lost everything in the devastating quake became more prosperous, and some who had lived there for two generations. There were young kids in 1968 who had grown up, raised families and started grandchildren’s families in these structures, as they waited for the government to finish the “house of bricks” promised them after the deadly seismic eruption.
The reason that they were finally coming down? The Italian central government environmental department was paying for their destruction since asbestos was used in their roofs. Otherwise, they would probably still be up! Government foot dragging to help the powerless families here was a national disgrace and widely reported on. Of course there were charges that the government was not acting fast enough because it was for the poor south, always discriminated against, as opposed to the richer north when similar tragedy struck there.
The event made national news and was described as a shameful milestone, coming so late after the quake itself, and only after the asbestos was discovered. The daily satire program here, “Striscia la Noticia” showed the demolition which did not treat the roofs any differently from the rest of the debris, and joked that the roof material would find its way into landfill along with all the other trash from the demolition and some other family could now live in the same asbestos for a few more generations.
People were paid for leaving and finding other housing, but promised government housing is still not complete. There was even a bit of a problem with protesters who wanted to keep their “barrack” to stable their horses! But most of the structures were abandoned long ago or used as storage sheds as some sort. One paper says that there were 242 units still standing, and there were other structures too, since these government ones were not put up immediately after the earthquake. New government low cost housing will go up on the property once the ruins are cleared out, an estimated nine months of work.
Yesterday in the paper there was a report of a demonstration in Menfi of about 100 residents of the barracks who did not want to leave their homes until the housing was built! They said they had been promised government housing and they wanted that in place before they moved out. These are the same people who demanded that the government housing be put up on the spot where they are living now, somehow while they continued to live there. Strange!