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| HOUSING
Finding housing seems to be the most difficult obstacle for
foreign women trying to integrate. The very fact that they
are foreign is itself a discriminating factor, and the fact
that their economic resources are limited prevents them from
access to many of the accommodation offers in the city, which
are too expensive. Furthermore, the delay in obtaining a residence
permit, which can last month or years, leads to longer stays
in welfare accommodation.
Moreover, women who are on their way towards emancipation
from trafficking are exposed to discriminating situations
in terms of accommodation, like other foreign women and men.
Council housing is not able to keep up with demand: in order
to do so, there would have to be almost twice the capacity.
Access to publicly owned accommodation is more complicated
for foreigners than for Italians: The regional law of Piedmont
(no. 22, 3 September 2001) on the allocation of publicly owned
apartments establishes that foreign citizens can obtain the
allocation of council flats only if they have been officially
resident in Italy and have worked with a regular employment
contract or have been self-employed for at least three years.
Further obstacles include insufficient access to information,
problems of understanding bureaucratic language and mechanisms,
and the impossibility of demonstrating their income.
In the private sector, with the high cost of rent and the
frequent request for fixed-term work contracts (temporary
or on-going and coordinated collaboration, or jobbing work)
are an obstacle to tenancy for both foreigners and many Italians;
but the insecurity, the extortionate rent, the squalid living
conditions and overcrowding are hardships to which mainly
foreign lodgers are subjected.
A special rental market has been created for foreigners, and
this has made flats that were previously off the market (since
they were unsuited for the needs of Italians and below minimum
present-day standards for habitability) profitable once more.
This parallel market is also characterised by many elements
of irregularity (on-the-side rent) and prices that are far
higher than those paid by Italian families with legal tenancy
contracts.
In this general scenario, most of the creation of socially
more effective accommodation opportunities and policies depends
on the capacity for innovation in the services sector, and
in the regional and municipal governments that are called
upon to find effective ways to promote equal opportunities
and to combat discrimination (from information to awareness-raising
and support). They also need to direct private resources to
socially useful ends, to organise the non-profit sector and
to redefine the role of the local authority.
The effectiveness of the actions to provide women victims
of trafficking with accommodation is thus very often linked
to the existence of a friendly network that is able to inform,
assist, advise and support the person on the various stages
(house hunting and tenancy) from an emergency or insecure
housing situation to one that is more stable and suitable.
Establishing and setting in motion one of these “networks”
is certainly one factor that can help make house hunting successful. |
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