In the village of Santo Stefano di Cessino are willing to pay up to 8,000 euros a year to live there • The reason: only 115 people remain in the village, of whom only 13 are under
The Italian village of Santo Stefano di Csenio
Photography:
trolvag
An Italian village an hour and a half drive from the capital Rome, offers to pay the people who will move to live in it, in the hope that this will increase the number of residents and continue to exist.
The Santo Stefano di Csenio village council, located in the mountains of the Abruzzo region, said that at present, there are only 115 people living in the village.
Only 13 of them are under the age of 20, while 41 of them are over the age of 65.
Given that these numbers are not enough for "sustainable and continuous development of the area", the village decided to pay people up to 8,000 euros a year to live there.
New residents will be given a house to live in and will have to pay rent, but it is said that this is "only a token amount".
Despite everything, the village is not ready to accept everyone.
They are looking for non-resident Italians, EU citizens or people from other countries with a residence card for the EU.
The new residents must be over the age of 18, but under the age of 40, and without a criminal record.
Future candidates will have to commit to living in the village for at least five years and start a business there.
To this end, the council offered to pay an additional one-time grant of up to € 20,000.
According to a CNN report, since the program launched on October 15, about 1,500 candidates have been registered, with registration expected to close on November 15.
This is not the first time that villages and towns in Italy have offered residents money to move in with them.
Last February, even before the outbreak of the corona virus, it was reported that the town of Taura in the province of Campania in southern Italy was offering to pay the rent to anyone who chose to join the community and move into a house in the town.
According to the proposal published by the town, in Taura, potential joiners were offered two alternatives: one - participation in a rent, of 150 euros per month, about 75% of the average monthly rent in the town, for a period of two years.
The second - a grant of 5,000 euros for the purchase of a house.
The Sicilian town of Camerata promoted the plan and went one step further and offered free homes.
In a desperate move to save the town from utter emptiness, Mayor Vincenzo Gaimbrona has spent the past three years persuading residents not to leave and at the same time, lowering prices so that buyers come.
"I can not stand the sight of the emptying of this beautiful and historic town, which is becoming ruins. It hurts me," he told CNN in an interview last November.
