Institutional portal - Municipality of Milan

Rabaiotti: “We put in place as many accommodations as possible. If the Region's regulations allow it, next year we hope to proceed more quickly"

Milan, November 28 2020 - There are 2.214 apartments that make up the total public housing offer in Milan for 2021. Of these, 2.014 are public housing (Sap, Public Housing Services, 982 municipal and 1.032 owned by Aler), to which another 200 apartments must be added, 150 from the Municipality and 50 from Aler, intended for SATs, the transitional housing services with short contracts.

These are the numbers indicated by the new annual plan for the provision of public and social housing services approved in the last council meeting, which will then have to be discussed in the city council, as established by the regional law on the matter (16/2016).

“We continue with our plan for full use and optimization of housing resources, putting in place the greatest number of accommodations possible for next year too - comments the councilor for social and housing policies Gabriele Rabaiotti -. The speed and quantity of assignments, however, will depend on the functioning of the regulation of the Lombardy Region, which we must respect. During this year, unfortunately, the mechanism jammed and blocked us, preventing us from proceeding as we had planned. We hope that the changes that the Region is currently introducing to the regulation can produce a different effect on the speed of assignments, and consequently on the effectiveness of the response due to those who have been waiting for a house for a long time".

The numbers of assignments made this year were in fact affected by the Covid 19 health emergency (which among other things led to the suspension of assignment activities for over two months because they were not compatible with safety protocols). But, above all, to proceed with the assignments both the Municipality and Aler had to wait for the Region to make the necessary changes to the regulation and the consequent adaptations to the IT platform useful for submitting applications, following the ruling of the Constitutional Court last January which sanctioned the illegitimacy of the requirement of at least 5 years of residence or work in Lombardy in order to access public housing.

Furthermore, with a ruling last July, the Court of Milan ascertained the discriminatory nature of the request, still included in the regional regulation, for documentation of the absence of ownership of properties in the country of origin by non-EU foreigners. This also required the necessary time to adapt to the new directives.

In total, therefore, the accommodations assigned from January 2020 to 31 October - Sap and Sat, including those used for the mobility of tenants - are 863, of which 549 from the Municipality and 314 from Aler. A few days ago, however, the new tender for 560 public houses was published, of which 310 are owned by the municipality and 250 by Aler, which will remain open until 31 December.

Of the 2.014 public houses available next year, a share equal to 20% will be reserved for families who are in a state of poverty, i.e. with ISEE equal to or less than 3 thousand euros, and a reward score will be assigned to a category of people who the Administration has identified as of particular social relevance: family units leaving social protection and welfare structures (such as parent/child communities, light residential accommodation and educational communities for minors coming from bodies with regional accreditation, Rst, tenants of accommodation affiliated with the Municipality for a housing emergency) or from detention facilities.

The newly approved annual plan also quantifies the number of accommodations to be allocated to transitional housing services, which require the same requirements for application as SAPs, but whose contract can last a maximum of one year, renewable only once.

During 2021 the Municipality will make 150 apartments available for this service, equal to 15,27% of the available share of Sap, Aler 50 apartments, equal to 4,84%. The recipients will in particular be families who have been evicted or whose apartment has been foreclosed, with measures already carried out or in the process of being carried out. In case of assignment, they will have to sign with the municipal offices an Accompanying Agreement for socio-economic autonomy and participation in the first useful Sap call.