BOLZANO. Christmas on the banks of the Isarco. It is the living condition of a large group of homeless people. There are about ten settlements created by homeless people along the two banks of the river between Ponte Loreto and Ponte Roma. A greater concentration of huts was built on the right bank, a few tens of meters from the Alexander Langer bridge, under the cycle path of Via Trento. It is there that a small “condominium” has been set up, or rather a camp of at least three structures, made with tents, makeshift wooden and cardboard roofs, hidden by vegetation and the cycle path wall.
Yesterday, Friday 20th, the opening of the former Inpdap building, which will provide two hundred places for the cold emergency. But it is not a given that all the people in camp decide to turn to the reception facilities. In the midst of piles of rubbish, we can recognize glimpses of domestic life that is anything but normal or at least out of the ordinary, such as a table with pots and pans, lines on which some laundry is hanging which will probably never dry given the humidity brought by the river.
The shacks are a few meters from the current water level. A condition which, beyond the social and environmental degradation, puts the occupants of the tent city themselves at serious risk in the event of a sudden rise in the river level. Which is why the camps are regularly cleared out by the municipal police. Same danger and same conditions for the other settlements scattered on the banks of the river, clearly visible now that the vegetation has lost strength.