Housing crisis may be behind Rome explosion – Codacons Consumer association denounces ongoing evictions (ANSA) – Roma, January 20 – Italy’ s chronic housing shortage and ongoing evictions may have been behind the explosion at an apartment building in an east Rome suburb that left one man dead and at least 13 injured early Tuesday morning, consumer association Codacons said Tuesday. “The problem of evictions is a genuine social drama,” said Codacons president Carlo Rienzi. “Just think that there were 31,399 evictions in 2013, up 7.7% over the previous year. In the last 5 years evictions have totalled 332,169, of which 288.934 for failure to pay the rent. And in 2014 there were approximately 150 evictions a day,” he continued. “Fear of losing the home lived in for years can lead to extreme gestures and acts of madness and it is for this reason that we think last night’ s explosion may have been caused the the desperation generated by the eviction emergency,” Rienzi concluded. Investigators have opened a probe into possible attempted mass murder in relation to the explosion at a building in the Colli Aniene neighborhood at about 03:00 local time, ANSA sources said. Police reportedly found a note in a car in the area of the explosion that read: “the signore is not going to enjoy the house because you are thieves”. The explosion seems to have been caused by a gas cannister near the front door of an empty flat in the building, sources said. Investigators are also reportedly searching for an elderly former occupant of the flat who was evicted some time ago against her will.

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