Social problems are numerous in every country. They can be connected with poverty, starvation or something other. There are also social problems that do not seem to be so serious – lack of living space in urban areas or lack of parking spaces in some tensely populated urban areas. These issues do to seem to be as serious as starvation but all them are connected with money and finance, as their solution is impossible without the latter. The case to be considered in this paper was also not very serious at first sight but its development proved that such problems also must be solved.
The case with the lack of parking spaces in an Italian city of Brescia happened in the year 2000 and lied in the fact that the local hospital Spedali Civili di Brescia (Brescia Civil Hospital) faced a serious lack of parking spaces for its employees, as well as for the visitors of the hospital. The problem appeared because of the new legislations that demanded from hospitals and other establishments of social services to have certain number of parking places not to cause emergency situations while leaving the territory of the hospital if some danger occurs.
According to the calculations of the managers carrying out the project for the Hospital, the approximate number of parking places needed was 1, 200 spaces, while the Civil Hospital possessed 186 spaces. Therefore, the construction of a parking area was planned to solve the problem.
The company ASM Brescia Trasporti was to carry out the construction works at the land to the north of the hospital. The problem was that only 77% of the land were owned by the hospital, while 23% were in possession of the EULO company that did not want to sell its part and planned to build its own parking area there. As far as the average cost of the construction works amounted to about €8, 000, 000 and land cost was €1, 741, 090 it was calculated that the cost of a single parking space will reach €7, 731 which was too much for such a non-profit organization as the Civil Hospital.
The way out was found by the officials of the Civil Hospital in attracting more participants to the construction costs and renting parking spaces from the companies that will invest into the construction of the parking area. These companies were EULO and ASM, with the latter proposing to give the whole amount of €8, 000, 000 for the construction.
The Civil Hospital of Brescia officials concluded that this way out will be the most appropriate for their institution and planned to rent the parking spaces necessary for its employees and visitors from ASM after the parking area is built for the period of 99 years during which they will only have to pay the rent for places. After the period expires they will have to pay full charges to ASM as its ordinary clients. ASM calculated that their annual revenues from this proposal will amount to €1, 372, 000 and agreed to it as the expenses will be much lower – only about €300, 000.
At the same time, the long-term loan (years 2000 – 2011) will be taken by this organization from a bank at convenient terms when they will only have to pay about €600, 000 per year with the cost of their debt being 3, 5% of its nominal rate.
Thus, the problem of the lack of parking spaces in the Civil Hospital of Brescia was solved by the joint forces of the hospital itself, the construction company ASM that owes the majority of parking areas in the city and the company EULO. The latter agreed to transfer its land to the property of the hospital on terms that it will have it share in the parking spaces as a rightful owner and not a renter of them and will benefit from it. The Civil Hospital of Brescia reached both aims that were set for it – it increased the number of parking spaces needed for proper functioning of the establishments and saved money which is important for the non-profit organization.