ATER (AZIENDA TERRITORIALE PER L'EDILIZIA RESIDENZIALE DELLA PROVINCIA DI VENEZIA)

ATER is a public economic firm that operates as an autonomous organisation within the housing sector, that helps provide housing and assistance for those who are unable to purchase or rent properties on their own

ATER (AZIENDA TERRITORIALE PER L'EDILIZIA RESIDENZIALE DELLA PROVINCIA DI VENEZIA)

Address	Dorsoduro, 3507, 30123 Venezia, Italy
Telephone	041 798811
Website	http://www.atervenezia.it/

History

The ATER organization began in 1995, on the roots of a previous organization, IACP, which was founded in 1914 . In the past 100 years, hundreds of thousands of people have taken advantage of housing. Today, 11,000 people benefit from ATER’s services and commitment to house those who have less access to the property market: primarily to individuals and economically "needy" families, but also to those who have the need for rented accommodation at reasonable rents including the elderly, students, who through times of family transition, to those who have an income too high for "social" housing but too low for homes on the regular real estate market . ATER also provides housing for the community police force.

The housing policy that exists today in Venice was established back in the fourteenth century when the Venetian Republic established a brotherhood with private individuals and resources of the state to build homes for sick sailors . By the late nineteenth century, a Commission for Healthy and Affordable Housing, an independent body made up of City Hall and Savings Bank, was established to manage the funds for the construction of houses . The houses that were built became municipal property and the income from these houses was used to finance other buildings. This commission laid the foundations necessary for the Venice City Council to decide, in 1908, on the establishment of an Independent Institute for Social Housing . On February 8,1914, the King of Italy signed a Royal Decree setting up the Independent Institute for Popular Houses of Venice.

The Institute originally owned some real estate, and was granted several building sites including 686 apartments built by the Commission in the historic center of Venice, in Castello (Sant'Anna, Quintavalle, Court Columns), in Cannaregio (San Giobbe, San Leonardo, the Jesuits) Dorsoduro (San Rocco, Domus Civica). Several years later, 221 more accommodations were added in Lido, Garden City. The Institute also built the homes at St. Agnes, the Champ de Mars at the Giudecca, the Madonna dell'Orto.

Between 1926 and1940, the Institute, at that time called the Fascist Institute for Public Housing, built 393 apartments on an area of 22,000 square meters in Santa Marta, 244 rooms at Sacca San Girolamo, 161 rooms at the Celestia and 283 at Helena Vittorio Emanuele III. The Institute also began to operate on the mainland, taking a leading role in the context of housing developments connected with the rise of the new industrial zone of Porto Marghera and Mestre wit inland expansion . In eleven years, the Institute built over six hundred dwellings in Marghera, half of them in the "Quarter Volpi", and another six hundred in Mestre . Two hundred additional accommodations were constructed in Ca 'Sabbioni and Ca' Brentelle in 1938, and many others in the province of Venice in nine municipalities .

After World War II, the primary statutory framework for the Institute, and consequently the way they operate, were substantially amended, in particular with the approval of the so-called Tupini Laws, 408/1949 . The public housing financing system was thereafter only entrusted to external credit and the flow of finance was not constant . At that time, in the historic center construction in the district Chiovere San Girolamo totaled 273 apartments with several in Sant'Eufemia, Giudecca and Murano . Great development of Marghera began in the 1950s, with the construction of 49 new buildings for a total of 493 lodgings . In Mestre, in 1955 the San Giuliano district development began initially with 15 buildings and 207 apartments, and completed in 1966 with 32 apartments, in 3 buildings . Other projects at that time included Viale San Marco, which began with 9 buildings and 56 apartments in 1954, and was compled in 1962 with 201 more apartments divided into 12 buildings . In 1960, more than 500 units were build on the the island of Sacca Fisola in Venice . In Mestre, 169 apartments and 23 buildings were added, and the San Teodoro neighborhood gained 151 apartments and 18 buildings . In the late sixties, the Institute spread its resources in the development of Campalto Cep district, which contains 25 hectares in the lagoon behind the sandbanks, where 50 buildings and over nine hundred apartments, a commercial and social center, plants sports, schools and public parks were built .

In the 1970s, the Institute was transformed into a public entity with a focus on public welfare . New laws, such as the n. 457/1978 (known as the "Ten-Year Plan for residential construction") and others secured funding to the Institute . In this period several buildings were added to the Institutes portfolio including, among others, the complex via Triestina in Favaro Veneto (1978), with 207 apartments, and the eight-story building in Via Casona .

In the 1980s, a large construction project in Mazzorbo, designed by architect Giancarlo De Carlo, consisted of the addition of eight buildings with no more than three floors, for a total of 36 apartments and four shops . The focus of the Institute beyond the usual construction activities, became the recovery, renovating and restructuring of existing buildings . In Venice, major maintenance programs at began at Santa Marta, San Rocco and San Girolamo in Sacca . An international design competition was held to determine potential uses for Campo di Marte, in Giudecca . On the mainland in Dolo, the Institute renovated old houses characteristic of Venetian towns and in Alvisopoli, the eighteenth century Villa Mocenigo, the heart of an historic complex consisting of several residential and manufacturing buildings was restored .

This commitment to the recovery and renovation of ancient buildings continued in the 1990s, both in Alvisopoli, where they are restored barns and granaries were converted into office space and in other towns with the restoration of Villa Marchi, in Marano di Mira, the recovery of the old mill in Cinto; and the restoration of the Gallion in Venice. Many projects in several municipalities were initiated, in response to the growing housing needs which included construction in the Campo di Marte, the Corso del Popolo, building two large buildings with one hundred twenty units . In addition to new construction, focus turned toward the renewal of the "Ten-year plan", Law no. 67/1988, and a new intervention program Law no. 179/1992, whereby residential construction activities led to the sale of a large part of the property assets of the Institute in order to recover resources to use for more construction and maintenance .

It was also at that time that the Institute took the new regulatory framework that is now ATER Venice . It assumed the role of semi-welfare and management agency of the public housing in Veneto. From that point, ATER diversified its activities and increased efficiency to generate resources to reinvest in housing . ATER turned its attention to the maintenance of a now very old housing stock (more than 40 percent of housing was built before 1940) and the growing number of families with an income not high enough to afford market rents and not low enough to access public low income housing .

ATER Today

ATER operates to facilitate access to housing of citizens who, for the economic conditions of their household, are not eligible for housing assignments within the public housing ERP guidelines, and who are unable to afford the private market offers . To this end, ATER purchases and constructs residential buildings to be leased or sold on the basis of income or social prices or through other forms of facilitation . It also purchases land on the open market or in buildings for residential purposes for sale at competitive prices .

Today, ATER’s 98 employees focus on assisting families in low and middle income . It also provides homes for the elderly, students, youth, police, and for those having to leave their home in emergency situations .

ATER works in conjunction with ERP on various services, initiatives both informational and educational to assist individuals in their rights and obligations arising from lease contracts, regulations and provisions of law . ATER manages the housing provided to those who qualify under ERP guidelines .

The recent interventions of ATER of Venice including the continuation of the redevelopment of the Champs de Mars on the Giudecca, participation in the 25 million euro redevelopment of Mestre Altobello, to restore six buildings and build a new one, for a total of 148 units of subsidized housing plus six non-residential units . In addition to these innovative interventions, each cited for excellence in quality design and organizational commitment, there are the new buildings of Via Montessori Chirignago and Squero Bissolati in Mestre, and the construction and restoration work carried out, in many municipalities of the province of Venezia .

In addition to building and operating public subsidized housing, ATER of Venice also operates on the open real estate market, offering housing and non-residential building units, both for sale and rent under management on behalf of third parties . Leases of such housing are "tiered", i.e. lower than the market prices with the purpose offsetting economic trends . The fees also depend on the forms of collaboration that ATER manages to establish for example with local authorities and trade associations, or the resources made available by specific laws, interventions, programs .

ATER publishes a notice of available accommodations through the website www.atervenezia.it and through the local press which includes the requirements for the location of such accommodation, the type of the lease, conditions and exclusions . In general, the requirements to obtain an ATER accommodation are the following: Italian citizenship or that of member of the European Union, permanent Italian residence card or who have lived in Italy in the regular exercise of paid employment or self-employment . Eligible persons must also have a registered residence or sole or main occupation in the province of Venice, annual taxable income including within the limits specified depending on family size, typically, approximately between about 15,000 and about 60,000 Euros . To encourage people or families with more difficult situations, there are conditions of priority for renting, which generally include the presence in the household of handicapped individuals or people over the age of sixty-five, those who have been evicted from their homes but not for breach of contract, single-parent families . Priority is given to young couples, married less than one year and those whose current rent is in excess of 30 percent of taxable income.

ATER Patrimony

ATER currently has total assets of 11,411 units including 7,784 units of subsidized housing and 2,013 units of low-income housing . In addition, it has 1,227 units under management for other entities. Many of the properties are listed in detail under the History chapter of this page. In total, 11,024 units are residential and 387 are non-residential .

The total yearly revenue from rents collected on these properties is € 16,098,405 of which € 11,056,056 are ERP and € 3,608,474 are not .

Mission

ATER pursues the following purposes, mainly operating in the following sectors :

a) The creation of more favorable conditions within the housing market to enable a proper solution to the housing problem, particularly for the socially and economically disadvantaged, in the following forms:

1) The rental or sale of real estate units for residential use, respectively, income or social prices in accordance with the facilities provided by law;

2) The lease or sale of property units for residential use at competitive prices to have a stabilizing and equalizing effect on the market;

3) The purchase of buildings on the free market in urbanized areas or urban development for the construction of housing units for residential use through construction work, reconstruction after demolition, renovation or restoration as part of their institutional purposes;

b) Execution of public works and primary and secondary infrastructure as well as the construction work related to programs of public housing, on behalf of municipalities, other public bodies and private operators, as part of recovery plans or other implementation tools of public action;

c) Consultancy services in the field of urban planning, public works and real estate asset management to public or private entities;

d) The management of the assets of other public bodies and creating initiatives in order to increase and enhance the properties including entering into agreements with municipalities and with other public and private entities operators to carry out the activities and the implementation of the initiatives listed above.

Activities

Current Projects:

August 2016 Renovation and construction on a building with 16 apartments in the City of Venice, Mestre via Camporese

October 2016-January 2017 Construction for the completion of a building with 19 residential units in the City of Venice, Giudecca Island in Campo di Marte.

Bibliography

ATER: Azienda Territoriale per l’Edilizia Residenziale, citta di Venezia. http://www.atervenezia.it/

Citta di Venezia. http://www.comune.venezia.it

Osservatorio Casa No. 14. Rapporto Annuale 2012. Retrieved from http://www.comune.venezia.it/content/rapporti-annuali

Osservatorio Casa No. 15. Rapporto Annuale 2014. Retrieved from http://www.comune.venezia.it/content/rapporti-annuali

ATER: Azienda Territoriale per l’Edilizia Residenziale, citta di Venezia. http://www.atervenezia.it/