Italian housing policies and poor people's health is there a dichotomy? An update of current situation

As it often happens in Italy, at the end of the year the Government proposes a Law Decree, called “Milleproroghe”, meaning a thousand prorogations. The Decree consists in a melting pot of heterogeneous measures that try to... [ view full abstract ]

As it often happens in Italy, at the end of the year the Government proposes a Law Decree, called “Milleproroghe”, meaning a thousand prorogations. The Decree consists in a melting pot of heterogeneous measures that try to put a Band-Aid on different situations. Among the various resolutions, last year the Decree did not include a block of the evictions for low-income families, or including disabled people or children.

The councillors for housing of the cities of Rome, Milan and Naples, the three largest urban areas in Italy, wrote a joint open letter to ask the Government to act to avoid a situation considered unmanageable. The data presented by those councillors include 30-50,000 families at risk, with 10,000 judgments for eviction in Rome, 4,500 in Naples and 4,000 in Milan. Once ejected from their homes, the fate of those people is to occupy unhealthy, precarious dwellings, if any. Unhealthy, inadequate and improper dwellings appear to be a widespread issue in Italian large urban areas. The last census of Italian residential buildings has recorded a huge increase (+ 131.8%) of precarious housing occupied by residents.

The Government stated that the funds for supporting unguilty non-payers of rents were already earmarked in the Law Decree n. 47/2014. These are indeed very different measures, as the availability of funds provided by Decree 47/2014 will be deferred between 2014 and 2020, while the measures defined in “Milleproroghe” Decree will be immediately applied.

The Government in February changed its mind and deferred the evictions for 120 days for those families with major problems, but at the end of June this “mini-prorogation” ended.
Health protection in indoor environment needs not only sanitary, but also social, administrative and normative interventions and policy maker ought to take these aspects into account.