Housing and welfare in Italy

The pandemic has made poverty worse, exacerbating a situation that was already difficult and is now nothing short of alarming. The Caritas report “Failed Reboot?” (Caritas Roma, 2021) presented in Rome on April 1, 2022, casts an unforgiving light on a very serious situation where it appears that “the only thing that’s been rebooted is poverty” 1 (Ciccarelli, 2022). As for inequality in Italy, the 2020 Oxfam Report “Time to Care” and its accompanying focus on Italy – tellingly entitled “DisuguItalia” 2 – paint an equally bleak picture. We read that the last 20 years have eroded social equity: the share of Italy’s national wealth in the hands of the richest 10 per cent has increased by 7.6 per cent, while that of the poorest half of the population has continued to shrink, dropping by 36.6 per cent. Women and young people are the most heavily penalized. Today, 30 per cent of young people who work do not earn more than €800 gross per month, and 13 per cent rank among the working poor. Furthermore, 11 per cent of Italian women are still forced to choose between working and looking after their children or other family members.