Innovative housing solutions for Third Country Nationals

The project “Building evidence on innovative housing solutions for Third Country Nationals”, funded by the British Embassy in Italy and implemented by IOM, aims at facilitating housing integration of third country nationals (TCNs) residing in Italy through the development of guidelines for municipalities on how to develop good practices for providing affordable and adequate housing.

The analysis showed that there are some key context-related factors that significantly impact the design, implementation, and replicability of housing integration projects.

• Access to stable and adequate housing proves difficult for all residents facing socio-economic hardships. This is due, among other things, to lack of adequate private and public housing, difficulty in accessing credit, and job insecurity.
• TCNs, though, face additional difficulties in finding adequate accommodation due to lack of trust and/or discrimination in the rental market, and, to a lesser extent, poor language skills and barriers in accessing services.
• In addition, TCNs are more exposed to the risks of housing exploitation. Informality in the private rental market poses an obstacle to contract registration and, consequently, to residency registration and access to services.
• Supporting housing autonomy requires a holistic approach, aimed at building social inclusion pathways that also involve employment, language skills development, and access
  to services.
• Each local area has different characteristics. Project design should start with context analysis and requires to be assessed from within the reference community. Housing initiatives should take into account the migration history of the local area (e.g. first reception, transit, stable permanence, family reunification), and the demographic composition of the foreign population (individuals, families, seasonal workers etc.).

The guidelines presented in this document were developed based on interviews with key informants, literature reviews of existing good practices, and focus groups with representatives of Italian municipalities and third sector organizations (TSOs).

The recommendations regard five key areas for successful project design and implementation, namely:

1. sustainable project development;
2. mainstreaming;
3. specific integration needs;
4. participation;
5. exchange networks.