Welfare and ageing

Elderly, 4.3 million live alone: this is why the government's Housing Plan forgets them

Already 2.8 million live in inadequate housing and meanwhile, with the increase of the over-80s, frailty and demand for assistance are on the rise: housing discomfort cannot be solved just by lowering rents but by promoting integrated services that also generate savings

by Claudio Falasca *

14 May 2026

3' min read

Translated by AI

Versione italiana

3' min read

Translated by AI

Versione italiana

Reducing housing deprivation does not only mean tackling high rents. It also means guaranteeing safe, accessible housing, suitable for fragility and located in neighbourhoods where there are proximity services, social assistance and social relations. The government's Piano Casa, on the other hand, focuses almost all its proposals on the construction and renovation of housing, relying on the possibility of offering lowered rents, without really questioning who will live in those houses and under what conditions.

Rsa "not enough"

In this way, housing hardship is reduced to a simple economic issue.

But living is not just about paying a rent. What is ignored above all is the housing hardship experienced by millions of elderly and frail people: today's largest and most exposed demographic group. Underlying this lack is an outdated view: considering ageing almost exclusively a health problem.

Hence the idea that the main response should be the RSA, placing the elderly in the sphere of non-self-sufficiency. This is an error of perspective.

Instead, the quality of living is the first infrastructure of care and Long Term Care.

The Piano Casa continues to perpetuate a deep-rooted cultural prejudice: 'the elderly stay at home'. As if everything could continue to function like this: the home as private property, the family as a substitute for care, the elderly person who never moves.

But the reality today has changed profoundly. The demographic transition is profoundly changing the social framework of our country: about 4 million elderly people are not self-sufficient; 4.3 million live alone; 2.8 million live in inadequate homes; the over-80s, frailty and demand for assistance are on the rise; family networks are becoming increasingly thin.

This means more loneliness, more isolation and greater social vulnerability.

Integrated Services

This is why SPI CGIL, Auser and Abitare e Anziani have long advocated the need for a real paradigm shift: to move from the idea of 'housing' as a mere economic good to the idea of 'housing' as an integrated service.

Living means being able to count not only on housing, but also on: proximity social and health services, home support, relationship spaces; shared care; accessible and inclusive neighbourhoods.

City to rethink

This is an issue that has long been at the centre of reflections in many countries as the real crux of new policies to support an ageing population. It has been realised in particular that it is not just a matter of planning new and more services for the elderly: no country today is able to cope with a constant and potentially unlimited growth in social and health services. Instead, it is a matter of building cities and homes in a way that is compatible with the needs of the entire life span of people in order to prevent the risks of frailty in old age, generating less demand for health care. Basically, it is necessary to produce a new housing offer able to put people in a position to independently seek and find effective answers to their needs, reducing the barriers that the most widespread housing and urban organisation models nowadays propose to frail individuals, due to age or other disabilities.

The expected savings

An offer that not only responds to the needs of the most fragile people, but also produces significant social and economic savings: for every euro invested in home care adaptation, 1.5 to 2 euros of health and welfare savings are generated.

Yet the government's Piano Casa, despite the dramatic experience of Covid 19, seems to completely ignore this social and demographic transformation, which already affects millions of Italian families and the quality of their daily lives.

* Auser - Association for Active Ageing