#107
Poverty, COVID-19, and Charity in Italy

In Italy, the economic effects of the COVID-19 emergency are causing widespread suffering and anxiety. One estimate predicts that one million Italians will newly face poverty this year. Further economic declines are projected in the months to come. Promised aid from the government is slow to reach individuals and businesses (a casualty of bureaucracy). Support from the European Union is likely to take time.
 
The situation highlights the gaps between policies and systems and capacity to deliver, as well as the wide repercussions of the COVID-19 crisis. One analyst commented that “what really matters, especially for the weakest members of society, is the state’s capacity to deliver the money.” In Italy, despite generous social protection policies, bureaucratic capacity is weak, and people have little faith in it. And though the economic impact of months of shutdowns is already evident, projections indicate that the real damage has yet to come. A wave of layoffs is expected once a ban on companies firing people is lifted in August, and the furlough scheme ends in October.
 
The onus of sharply increasing poverty caused by the COVID-19 emergency falls in large part on charities and community groups. Long lines at soup kitchens are a measure of effects of the crisis. In Rome, one kitchen in Trastevere run by the lay Catholic Community of Sant’Egidio reports longer lines with people who had never come before. Many supermarkets have adopted a program called spesa sospesa, deferred shopping where shoppers can buy groceries which charities then deliver to the poor. Volunteers at Nonna Roma, a community group, regularly deliver food parcels to 7,500 families, compared with 300 before the pandemic. Pope Francis has also established a fund aimed at helping families in the city who are struggling.

(Based on: June 29, 2020, Guardian article.)