SDA Bocconi joins a new European Research project on housing inequalities in the context of marginalized communities

The EU is facing a housing crisis with a lack of affordable, sustainable, and inclusive housing. In 2020, 17.5% of EU citizens lived in overcrowded households, with higher rates in Eastern Europe (45% in Romania). Around 35 million people (8% of the population) were affected by energy poverty and unable to heat their homes adequately. The recent surge in energy and fuel prices, and COVID-19 have worsened this situation. The problem of housing inequality - understood as disparities in the access, affordability, quality of housing conditions and availability of housing between different groups of people - affects many people in the EU, with high costs and inequality dimensions disproportionately impacting those already living in or at risk of poverty. In 2020, the lowest 20% of households spent 40% or more of their income on rent. Additionally, 95.4 million people (22% of the population) in the EU were at risk of poverty or social exclusion, with higher risks for women and households with children, highlighting the importance of understanding interlinkages - such as available and accessible infrastructures in regard to public health, mobility, digitization and secure employment also in regard to rural-urban differences - for policymakers trying to mitigate housing inequalities.

How to address housing inequalities is the starting point of HouseInc, a new European research project funded under the Horizon Program, aiming to deeply analyze interlinked dimensions of housing inequalities in the context of marginalized communities, through methodologies combining different disciplines, quantitative analysis and case studies, from all over Europe. HouseInc will empirically understand economic, social and ecological drivers and effects of housing inequality to derive and co-design high-quality policy recommendations for local, regional and national policy makers to foster the adoption of effective and innovative measures to address current housing inequality in Europe and therewith contribute to a better socio-economic integration of marginalized communities in European societies.

The project is coordinated by the Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft, and it includes 13 partners, from 7 different countries. Within this consortium, SDA Bocconi will lead a strategic work package aiming at mapping and characterizing existing solutions addressing affordable housing adopting a multi-sectoral perspective, in order to co-design solutions at local and regional scale targeting different vulnerable segments, such as students, refugees, migrants and elderly people. SDA Bocconi team – lead by Veronica Vecchi, Director of Research, Innovation and International Programs for Government & Society – involves Raffaella Saporito and Eleonora Perobelli, experts of public housing management and policy; Niccolò Cusumano and Francesca Casalini, experts of business government relations and innovative business models; and Giovanni Fosti, expert of social innovation and inequalities.

SDA Bocconi School of Management