Third Factor

The way home is built through integration

Fondazione Progetto Arca tackles the housing emergency in Milan by providing flats and accompanying people

by Lorenzo Losa

31 October 2025

Un operatore di Fondazione Progetto Arca nella casa di un beneficiario

4' min read

Translated by AI

Versione italiana

Key points

In 2024, 433 people in need will be accommodated
The plight of the homeless
The addiction emergency
Sinigallia: "It's not enough to allocate a house"

4' min read

Translated by AI

Versione italiana

The façades of the skyscrapers reflect Milan's harshest contradictions: "On the one hand, skyrocketing real estate prices, on the other, families who no longer have a roof over their heads," summarises a professional educator. Not only those overwhelmed by construction sites blocked by judicial enquiries, with more than 1,600 flats left unfinished by 2025, but also those who, month after month, are unable to cope with increasingly unsustainable rents. The housing emergency is not just about numbers, but about people: families, stories, children who risk growing up without a safe place to call home.

According to ISTAT, there are 2.2 million families, or 5.7 million people, living in absolute poverty in Italy. In Lombardy, in 2024, 4,802 evictions were carried out, 1,597 of which in the province of Milan alone. This is how a homeless mother describes her situation: 'I am in a dormitory, but there is no room for everyone here. So my husband and the children have had to share between friends and makeshift beds in different houses. It is a drama that translates into children being forced to leave their bedrooms, families devoured by anxiety and forced to separate in order to find a temporary housing solution.

Accommodation of 433 people in need in 2024

More than thirty years after its foundation, Fondazione Progetto Arca, thanks to 131 available flats, has welcomed 433 people in difficulty in 2024 alone, offering housing paths aimed at regaining independence. Among these are the projects aimed at fragile families, which in the same year involved 212 beneficiaries, with a surprising figure: 94% of the discharged households achieved full housing independence. A result that shows how a roof, psychological and educational support and social accompaniment can break the cycle of poverty.

There is no escaping the structural causes: stagnant salaries, skyrocketing rents, gentrification that expels residents from historical neighbourhoods, blocked construction sites that turn promised houses into concrete skeletons. And yet, if we look at Progetto Arca's high self-sufficiency housing projects, a figure emerges that should give politics pause for thought: in 2024, out of 160 beneficiaries, 100% had achieved real self-sufficiency in their homes. This demonstrates that it is not enough to just hand over the keys to a flat, people need to be helped to become independent so that they can find a role in society.

The Plight of the Homeless

In the same year, Progetto Arca's mobile units carried out 793 outings, distributing more than 323,000 meals and thousands of basic necessities. A lifeline for 3,585 homeless people who would otherwise be invisible. According to the latest census of the Italian Federation of Organisations for the Homeless (Fio.PSD), there are more than 96,000 homeless people registered in the Italian registry office and Milan is one of the most serious epicentres. 'Behind each story there are different reasons,' explains a professional educator, 'the causes that lead to the loss of a home are many: the loss of a job, the breaking of family ties, health problems, up to the loss of a residence permit.

The addiction emergency

Another face of the Milanese emergency is that of addictions. In 2024, the public services assisted 132,195 people addicted to substances: men and women trapped in circuits of marginality, often far from care and social networks. In Milan's temporary shelters, Progetto Arca guaranteed more than 24,000 hours of health assistance, 3,484 hours of psychological support, 7,747 hours of social help. Not just a bed for the night, but a path to rebuild an existence, step by step.

Milano è una città spaccata. Da una parte gli attici di lusso con vista sul Duomo, dall’altra i rifugi temporanei, i pacchi viveri, le famiglie sfrattate. Molte organizzazioni del terzo settore, tra cui Fondazione Progetto Arca, contribuiscono a contenere l’emergenza abitativa. Tuttavia, queste organizzazioni da sole non possono sostituire politiche pubbliche mirate. Il Sindaco di Milano, Giuseppe Sala, affronta l’emergenza abitativa in questi termini: «è uno dei temi più urgenti di cui la politica deve occuparsi, il tema su cui le città stanno chiedendo aiuto». Tuttavia, come osserva il sindaco Sala, ci sono vincoli rilevanti: «per ragioni di bilancio è impensabile che si possano avere le risorse necessarie a realizzare nuovi alloggi a prezzi calmierati». Ed è per questo che l’apertura ai privati, per Sala, è indispensabile. Altre soluzioni come l’ampliamento dell’offerta di case popolari, la regolazione degli affitti e la riqualificazione del patrimonio edilizio esistente sono fondam

Sinigallia: 'It is not enough to allocate a house'

"Housing is a fundamental human right, the pillar of everyone's life, the starting point for any real path of integration," says Alberto Sinigallia, president of Fondazione Progetto Arca. "To achieve this integration, it is not enough to allocate a house, it is necessary to accommodate fragile people in hospitable and functional places. And here our socio-educational teams accompany people on a path of real reconstruction of life, also made up of training on the management of expenses and a savings plan, and of work and socialisation opportunities. Beauty, responsibility and autonomy are the cornerstones of the social housing model proposed by Progetto Arca.

And so, every night, while the shop windows of the centre shine with lights and consumption, hundreds of people seek a place in dormitories or shelter under the arcades. It is the invisible Milan, the one that reminds us that, today, having a home is no longer a right, but a luxury that too many cannot afford.

Lorenza Losa participates in 'Terzo Fattore', a partnership between Il Sole 24 Ore and the Università Cattolica with the support of TechSoup. The initiative aims to promote knowledge of the third sector. Students carry out internships in non-profit organisations and recount the most significant aspects of their experiences.