In 1995 foreigners accounted for 17% of the applications for public housing, compared to 49% in in 2018.5 The objective of this study is to understand the barriers to accessing decent and affordable housing experienced by people with a migratory background, including discrimination, the motivations behind them and the stakeholders involved. [...] During the last 10 years, the overall number of residents in Turin has been decreasing (from 905,014 in 201311 to 858,404 in 202212) while the share of foreigners living in the city compared to the general population has remained relatively stable: the total share of foreign residents fluctuated between 14.9% and 15.6%, while the share of non-EU foreign residents specifically fluctuated between 8.. [...] The project interviewed landlords, real estate agencies and other housing intermediaries - to better understand the perspective of the actors who are on the “other side” of the housing system. [...] service - an agency of the Turin Municipality that is supposed to facilitate access to the private housing market for disadvantaged segments of the population - and one key informant insisted on the need to make available housing support tools better known; on the other hand, among those FGD participants who were aware of the existence of Lo. [...] During FGDs, access to, and reliance on, non-migrant personal contacts to search for housing was indicated as a strong advantage allowing to smoothen many of the obstacles existing in the housing market, including speculative rental conditions, the request for an Italian guarantor, as well as the lack of landlords’ trust and the reluctance to rent their property to foreigners.
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Table of Contents
- Turin Case Study 1
- MMC Research Report September 2024 1
- Acknowledgements 3
- Contents 4
- Tables and figures 5
- Summary and key findings 6
- 1. Introduction 7
- 2. Local context 8
- 2.1 Migrant population residing in Turin 8
- 2.2 Housing systems in Italy 9
- 3. Methodology 12
- 3.1 Desk review 12
- 3.2 Quantitative data collection 12
- 3.3 Qualitative data collection 16
- 3.4 Limitations 17
- 4. Research findings 18
- 4.1 Respondents housing situation 18
- 4.1.1 Choice of neighbourhood and access to services 18
- 4.1.2 Sector and type of housing 18
- 4.1.3 Housing conditions 21
- 4.2 House search strategies 21
- 4.2.1 Channels used to look for housing 21
- Word of mouth among migrants 23
- Formal housing agencies 24
- Word of mouth among non-migrant personal contacts 24
- Housing advertisement websitesbrochures 24
- Social Media 25
- NGOs 25
- 4.2.2 Reasons for choosing housing search channels 25
- 4.2.3 Helpfulness of house search channels 26
- 4.2.4 Awareness about public and social housing 27
- 4.3 Obstacles to finding housing 28
- 4.3.1 Housing discrimination 28
- Discrimination grounds 31
- Ethnicity 32
- Household composition 32
- Religion 33
- Age and gender 33
- Discrimination after finding housing 33
- Perpetrators of discrimination 33
- Impacts of discrimination 34
- 4.3.2. Economic obstacles 34
- 4.3.3 Legal and bureaucratic obstacles 35
- 4.3.4 Other obstacles 35
- 4.3.5 Relative importance of discrimination and other obstacles as barriers to finding housing 36
- 4.4 Housing gatekeepers perceptions of people with a migratory background 36
- 4.3.1 Concerns about financial solvency 36
- 4.3.2 Racial discrimination 37
- 4.5 Resilience strategies 38
- 4.5.1 Measures adopted by respondents with a migratory background to overcome obstacles in finding decent and affordable housing 38
- External sources of help 38
- Legal remedies 39
- Rent subsidies 40
- Public housing 40
- 4.5.2 Measures adopted by housing gatekeepers to address perceived risk related to prospective tenants with a migratory background 41
- 4.6 Recommendations 41
- 4.6.1 Solutions suggested by respondents with a migratory background 41
- 4.6.2 Solutions suggested by housing gatekeepers 42
- 4.6.3 Solutions suggested by housing experts 42
- 5. Conclusions 43
- Annex 1. List of key informants 44
