Protests by homeless students (which had disappeared for three years) are back, orchestrated by the Udu

Mum, have you seen where my tent’s gone? Yes, that pop-up tent used to protest against Bernini over the student halls… the one I always use! What? It has been locked away in the storage unit for three years? It has been three years since we last occupied a building? And what have I been doing all this time? Where have I been living in the meantime? Perhaps you have fallen behind in your studies, or perhaps you have happily graduated because nobody actually stopped you from doing so. For three years, students either found alternative arrangements or commuted from their parents’ homes. For three years, up until May 2023, the issue of those “earthquake tents” had remained largely out of sight. Then, the memory of Italy’s struggling students was suddenly rekindled, “partly in the wake of the protests in France and Spain” (Il Fatto).

From France, we are seeing mostly images of attacks on schools. From Spain, on the other hand, there are the ‘acampadas’, even though those tents are there because of the housing crisis. However, the spark has been lit. There is no need to dwell on just how much of the new wave of Italian protests against high housing costs – affecting university students – is derivative or copied. The protest is organised and run by the UDU (in the days of genuine student struggles, one would have said ‘monopolised’). The UDU, the University Students’ Union, is a trade union, not exactly a spontaneous movement as student movements are usually poetically portrayed. It is an organised body closely linked to the CGIL, from which it receives funding, in addition to the funds to which it is entitled under the scheme for university associations. However, that is not the main issue. The key point is the evident planning involved, capitalising on the international media hype and the political calendar, which sees elections taking place everywhere.

There is no doubt that problems exist for those living away from home – around 450,000 or even double that number, depending on how one defines commuting from outside the local authority area. Nor is there any doubt that the number of available places (excluding the private rental market) is insufficient (the estimate is around 90,000). Then there is the delay in the government’s plan, which envisaged 60,000 new places by 2026, with the figures being disputed (though the Ministry of Universities, in turn, disputes the claims regarding the figures). The issue, for example, is whether or not to include accommodation available in private facilities or provided by universities.

However, we can look back to those three years when the tents were left in the loft. And perhaps consider that the dramatic homelessness crisis was not really one at all. It is always curious to read the diligent interviews with the young people taking part in the protest organised – rather like a tour operator – by the Udu. La Repubblica: “Among those protesting is Linda, a 19-year-old philosophy student who commutes from Varese. ‘I’d love to be able to live in Milan’”. Commuting from Varese means an hour’s journey. Crossing the metropolitan area can take even longer. Can the thousands of students in these circumstances be considered ‘living away from home’? Adding commuters to those who have actually moved there is a manoeuvre that is more demagogic than productive. In certain cases, such as in large cities, improving transport links would be more useful than building new accommodation where costs per square metre are very high.

It should also be noted that much of the controversy, which at this stage is purely political, centres on the role of private providers, who charge high fees. However, without the contribution of the private sector, which takes on financial risk, ‘the public sector’ would have done even less, at a higher cost to everyone. Private or subsidised halls of residence have a portion with subsidised fees and a portion at market rates. The system can be improved, but only provided there is greater intervention from public or solidarity-based funds (in other words: lower interest rates on loans); however, it is unwise to label it ‘speculative’. The ‘private rooms that can cost as much as a thousand euros a month’, which outrage the gullible, in cities such as Milan (though Rome or Bologna are no cheaper) simply reflect market prices. According to Sabrina Brizzola, coordinator of the Udu, “this isn’t student accommodation: it’s speculation at the expense of the most vulnerable students”. However, this is merely trade-union rhetoric; if the situation were truly intolerable, tents would have been set up three years ago. Indeed, where have they all gone?