HFE_Italy

Italy

First efforts towards implementing Housing First in Italy started in 2012 with a few municipalities (Bergamo, Bologna, Trento and Ragusa) integrating the Housing First model in their homelessness services. After the success of these small-scale pilots, fio.PSD, the steering group of the Italian Federation of Organizations for Homeless People called for a national coordination of Housing First projects and laid the ground with a two year pilot including 35 projects from 2014 until 2016.

Italy can look back on more than 10 years of Housing First experience with Housing First currently being established in 35 cities in 14 regions. The first national testing phase ran from 2014 until 2016 and exhibited a 62.3% retention rate. The project was coordinated by the Network Housing First Italia which was created by fio.PSD in 2014.

This Italian Housing First network consists now of 56 members and is also actively involved with the international Housing First community. In 2018 a new phase began for the network in which the focus shifted towards providing training and supervision for the Housing First services around the country.

Our partners in Italy

  • fio.PSD

    fio.PSD (Italian Federation of Bodies for the Homeless), is a democratic, nonprofit association that pursues social solidarity goals in the area of severe adult marginalisation and homelessness. The federation was formed in the mid-1980s through a spontaneous and informal aggregation of social workers involved in the fight against homelessness, and it was formally established as a Federation in 1990.   fio.PSD members are agencies and/or organisms belonging to both the public and private sectors, whose work tackles severe adult marginalisation and homelessness. The Federation counts more than 130 associates spread across 16 Italian regions. fio.PSD’s goals: • to coordinate the work of public, private and voluntary organisations tackling severe adult marginalisation and homelessness in Italy; • to raise awareness of all social partners over homelessness, • to activate opportunities of study, mutual exchange and social research, pursuing the objective of a better understanding of the phenomenon and the elaboration of methodologies and strategies to fight against social exclusion, • to spread best practices and the methodological knowledge of intervention through the organisation of workshops, conventions, training courses and the editing of a specific and specialised publication in the field of severe adult marginalisation. fio.PSD and Housing First Housing First arrives in Italy in 2014 thanks to the work of fio.PSD. As a matter of fact, the principles and methods of Housing First were introduced in Italy by the Federation, which initiated a process to support the first Housing First pilot projects. The aim of the course was to spread a new culture for a sustainable and inclusive social living, aimed at overcoming the problem of homelessness through innovative and experimental solutions that use the principles of Housing First. Additionally, fio.PSD promoted the establishment of the Housing First Italy Network, established in March 2014 in Turin. It is a network of public, private and private social entities (in most cases religious and private social organisations) which have decided to experiment with the Housing First approach by following a path of accompaniment and scientific supervision, after being engaged in their territories in the fight against extreme poverty for years. Since then, a wide range of associations, social cooperatives, foundations, municipalities and public social services scattered throughout the national territory have joined.

Trainers

  • Abele Sangiorgio pic - Abele Sangiorgio

    Abele Sangiorgio

    fioPSD; Opera San Francesco

    Country: Italy

    Languages: EnglishItalian

    I’ve worked in schools and residential services for adolescents for almost 10 years. I work as a support worker and a case manager in an Housing First service since 2015. I work as a Housing First trainer since 2018. I contribute to the spread of the HF approach in my Country where there are often misconceptions and resistances about this approach. I have a degree in psychological sciences and techniques and I’m a professional counsellor.

  • per train the trainers - Margherita Neri

    Margherita Neri

    Cooperativa Sociale Piazza Grande

    Country: Italy

    Languages: ItalianSpanish

    Margherita has been working for 10 years in services aimed at homeless people within third sector organizations. She has always been passionate about the issue of the right to housing and for this reason she has coordinated and worked in the Housing First program managed by the Piazza Grande Social Cooperative. In the Cooperative she has covered various roles of coordination of socio-educational projects and is currently vice president. Margherita collaborates with Fio.PSD in the context of sector specific operators training, the training focusing especially on Housing First projects, social and health integration, and community work.