Friends in Milan bring good news: the "solidarity condominiums" that emerged in Piedmont and Lombardy have grown to ten, and perhaps soon will be eleven.
What are solidarity condominiums?
Let us answer clearly and briefly.
It happened for the first time twenty years ago: "Some families who felt a deep need to give meaning to their lives outside consumer society decided to live together in a villa and farmhouse that needed restoration on the outskirts of Milan, bound by a pact of mutual aid around a shared project."
Thus was born the first solidarity condominium in Villapizzone (see Ombre e Luci no. 3-1985), and those first families taught us that it is possible to "live close and in solidarity," with doors open to the outside world in a way of exchange that enriches; that in this context not only is hospitality to people in difficulty possible but essential; and above all, that it is possible to live in a "different way," to give meaning to daily life itself, starting from the very heart of the family.
"As if from Villapizzone a vibration had been sent out that shows no sign of stopping," as one account notes. A series of words took shape—community, common purse, simple living, acceptance of difference, evangelization, urban renewal—and these found great resonance, awakening hopes that in some cases took concrete form in new ventures.
In the years that followed, new solidarity condominiums arose, each following the Villapizzone model but each with its own character, reflecting the different needs and aspirations of the people who formed them.
From these early efforts emerged the Comunità e Famiglia Association—Comunità e Famiglia, Villapizzone, piazza Villapizzone 3, 20156 Milano. Tel/Fax 02/3271009—which carries out diverse activities: it promotes new solidarity condominiums while also fostering different forms of mutual aid and guidance. Many families aspire to form a new community, or simply wish, while living in an apartment, to share moments and initiatives with already-formed communities. This gave rise to Sharing Groups, where people gather to discuss central questions of family and community life, drawing on the association's experience.
All the solidarity condominiums established to date are part of the Comunità e Famiglia Association, yet each is entirely independent, free to adopt forms and rules suited to its own development.
The pact among families always involves sharing an economic model built on two pillars: simplicity and self-sufficiency. Simplicity means refusing unnecessary goods and therefore the frantic work required to obtain them. Self-sufficiency means rejecting dependency on outside assistance.
We could say much more about work activities, about the blank check each family receives at the start of each month and fills in according to its needs, about the "City of Reuse"—as one solidarity condominium defines itself—where everything can be recovered, from environmental spaces to objects to people's own experiences. Instead, we prefer to leave our readers some curiosity to satisfy by going directly to the source—the Comunità e Famiglia Association—and we give space to the account of Ugo and Beatrice, who, after their experience with Fede e Luce, both arrived in the world of a solidarity condominium, though in different roles.
- edited by Tea Cabras, 2002