If the right to housing becomes a mirage

In this scenario, governments have remained inert. Despite the full legal legitimacy of the right to housing, few states have developed effective policies to balance the sacrosanct freedom of the market with the necessary protection of the right to housing. Often, interventions have been late or even counterproductive, contributing to distortions rather than corrective measures.

The Italian case is emblematic. The legislation on residential leases, born with the laudable intention of protecting the tenant, is now anachronistic and unsuitable to meet the needs of both landlord and tenant. The mandatory minimum contractual term of 4+4 years, the stringent constraints on the landlord's right to terminate the lease, and the chronic slowness of eviction procedures have driven many landlords to withdraw from the market or to favour more flexible and profitable formulas, such as short rentals. The result is a further structural contraction of the supply of affordable housing.

The phenomenon of squatting is, in this context, a glaring symptom of a social malaise that leads to forms of private justice, a symptom of the failure of institutions to guarantee a constitutional right.

The scale of the problem of access to housing is such that it can no longer be ignored. According to the most recent data, the number of homeless people in Europe has increased by 70 per cent over the last decade, reaching almost 900,000. This is an alarming figure, which has prompted the European Union to set up, in June 2021, a platform to tackle the phenomenon with the goal - ambitious and still far off - of ending homelessness by 2030.

However, only three member states (Finland, Denmark and Austria) have recorded a decrease in the number of homeless people, thanks to the adoption of the Housing First strategy, which provides housing as a prerequisite for access to health, education and social services. A concrete and pragmatic approach that deserves more widespread adoption.

But if Athens weeps, Sparta does not laugh. Even across the Atlantic, the situation is far from reassuring. In the United States, homelessness rose by 18.1 per cent in 2024, a dramatic increase linked to the shortage of affordable housing, recent natural disasters and, before that, Covid-19. Among the most alarming trends is the surge of entire families reduced to living on the streets, with a 40% increase in large cities. And the political horizon does not seem to offer reassuring solutions, as the new Trump administration is unlikely to enact social housing policies.

If we still want to consider the right to housing as a fundamental right to be protected, a profound rethinking of housing policies is indispensable, taking them away from the mere logic of market self-regulation.

A possible way forward could be the introduction of an obligation to integrate investments in social housing within the ESG (Environmental, Social and Governance) policies adopted by real estate investors. In real estate, the focus on environmental aspects is well established, but that on social aspects is still too marginal. The latter must instead be central to a truly sustainable and collective vision. Introducing obligations or incentives to allocate a share of investments to the creation of affordable housing could be a first step to realign public and private interests.

Equally necessary is the use of fiscal instruments - such as the defiscalisation of low rents or support for those participating in social housing programmes - on the French or German model.

Decisions can no longer be postponed. Without courageous, far-sighted and structural political choices, the right to housing risks turning into a noble enunciation devoid of effectiveness. Yet another right on paper, disregarded in reality.