He looks out from a dark, narrow passageway framed by suspended steel stairways that block the natural light and lead up to abandoned apartments. Most of the windows are bricked up, and liquid leaks from split pipes on to the sewage and refuse-strewn asphalt several storeys below. “We used to play down there,” says Benfenati, now a housing activist. “The uncollected rubbish bags make ideal goalposts for five-a-side football.”