Around 300 people, including nearly 100 children, have been sleeping rough in Rome for nine days after being evacuated from the seven-story Spin Time building near Termini station. The cause was a fire in late July, after which authorities declared the building uninhabitable and placed it under judicial seizure.
The building has been occupied since 2013 and over the years has become home to about 140 families from more than 20 countries. After the fire on July 29, police evacuated the residents, although the fire was quickly brought under control and the damage was limited. Since then, people can only enter one at a time, accompanied by police, to collect documents and essential items.
The situation has been further complicated by a heat wave in Rome, where temperatures have exceeded 40 degrees. On August 6, a two-year-old girl collapsed in the arms of a Red Cross nurse. Volunteers are delivering food, water, clothes and mattresses, and an outdoor cinema is organized for the children in the evening.
Spin Time is not just an apartment building. It operates a free co-working space, a youth newspaper, concerts and theater performances. In 2019, the building attracted international attention after Cardinal Konrad Krajewski, the papal almsgiver, personally helped restore the electricity supply, which had been cut off due to accumulated debts.
On August 3, the prefect of Rome called a meeting with Mayor Roberto Gualtieri, the police, the housing authority and representatives of the Vatican. The municipality offered to buy the building from the InvestiRE SGR fund and temporarily allow the residents to return until the deal is finalized. However, this proposal was rejected.
InvestiRE SGR said that an inspection had found that after 13 years of occupancy, the building did not meet safety requirements and that this did not legally allow it to be temporarily handed over to the municipality. However, the fund said it remained open to talks about selling the property.
Mayor Gualtieri announced that from Monday the municipality would be able to offer alternative accommodation to the residents. However, they insist on returning to Spin Time and intend to continue their protest.
The dispute also has a strong political charge. The ruling party “Italian Brothers“ opposes the idea of the municipality buying the building with public funds, arguing that this would reward illegal occupation while thousands of people wait for municipal housing. The residents themselves claim that the fire was used as a pretext for their final eviction.
The foundation has been planning to build a luxury hotel on the site for years, and Spin Time is among the sites being targeted by the authorities for eviction. If the current eviction becomes permanent, it would be the largest such evacuation of an occupied building in Italy.