Presentation given by Michela Braga, Mirella Cerniglia, Massimo de Albertis, Italy, at a FEANTSA Research Conference on "Migration, Homelessness and Demographic Change in Europe", Pisa, Italy, 2011

1. Italian and Foreign born Homeless in a metropolitan
area: Challenges and Opportunities
Evidence from an Original Data Collection in Italy.
Michela Braga, Università Bocconi Milano
Mirella Cerniglia, Massimo De Albertis
Servizio Adulti in Difficoltà – Comune di Torino
Interdisciplinary
Center 'Sciences
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Pisa, 16th September 2011

2. MOTIVATION
 Information on the number and characteristics of the homeless is
necessary for program planning
 Quantitative and qualitative data are necessary to quantify
economic resources to reduce homelessness and to prevent it with
policies
 Baseline survey for further studies => program evaluation
 Cross countries analysis: gap between Italian and international research
 In US, systematic data collection year by year starting from the
early 80’s
 In Europe some attempts have been made in the last years
 Only one previous research in Italy
 Economic research on this topic is very scarse
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3. MAIN CONTRIBUTION
 Quantitative and qualitative data collection:
 First Census of homeless in Turin
=> count and localization
 Data collection to understand not only the number of homeless and the
concentration, but also to capture characteristics
=> questionnaire
 Are homeless different according to their nationality? If yes in which
dimension?
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4. THE NETWORK OF TURIN
 The network of services and interventions against the acute marginality in
Turin is due to a strengthened partnership during the last years between the
social services of the Municipality and:
• the Charity Work (christian and secular organisations) with its centuries-old
and widespread presence throughout the city area;
• the Health Services (Mental Health, Addiction Service, Emergency Medical
Service) with whom went in experimental projects in favor of homeless.
 In this context, the Servizio Adulti in Difficoltà of the Municipality of Turin:
• plans, projects interventions in favour of homeless throughout the whole city
area;
• arranges individual social including paths concerning the target users;
• runs and coordinates services in favour of homeless through the private
social sector.
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5. MUNICIPALITY OF TURIN
Services runned through the private social sector
 Proximity services and first care centers with easy and direct access:
 Health care service
 Shelters
 Street day time service (from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m.)
 Street night time service (from 8 p.m. to 1 a.m.)
 Second level housing services to accede through individual project worked
out by Social Services
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6. THE SHELTERS OF THE MUNICIPALITY OF TURIN
The presence of immigrants 2001 – 2010
Share of immigrants in shelters
of the Municipality of Turin
50%
45%
40% 47%
43%
35%
30% 35%
25% 29%
20%
15%
10%
5%
0%
anno 2001 anno 2004 anno 2007 anno 2010
The graph considers only those who have used the night shelter for a period of at least seven nights.
In 2010, 1324 persons used the shelters of the Municipality for one night at least; 54% were immigrants.
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7. METHODOLOGY: data collection
Point in time survey using the S - Night approach (Shelter and Street Night): January
18th 2010
 All individuals that in the reference night sleep in
TARGET
 places not meant for human habitation = street homeless;
 emergency shelters = sheltered homeless;
 45 small census blocks
COUNT  Reduce risk of double count (3/4 hours for each block)
 Simultaneous full census of the whole city
 Localization and detection of observable characteristics
 Costs: monetary, human, time vs Benefits: accuracy, limit under estimates
INTERVIEW
 Try to interview as many possible homeless
 Trade off between accuracy of the data collection and loss of observations
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8. THE POPULATION
Street Shelters Total
N. of homeless counted (2010) 288 477 765
percentage 38% 62% 100%
N. of homeless sampled (2010) 288 477 765
Found 222 477 699
Interviewed 83 315 398
Refused 12 18 30
Not found 66 66
Who where sleeping 12 12
Not interviewed due to time constraint 20 144 164
% found 77% 100% 91%
% interviewed 29% 66% 52%
% Refused 4% 4% 4%
% not found 23% 9%
% Who where sleeping 4% 2%
% Not interviewed due to time constraint 7% 30% 21%
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10. SOCIO DEMOGRAPHIC
CHARACTERISTICS
 Adults in the central part of their life (average age 39.9)
=> failures in individual life projects (lack/loss job, family relationships,
divorces..)
 Differently from the general population, the homeless are mainly men (80%
vs. 48%) and immigrant (61% vs 5.8%)
 Geographical origin in line with general population (21% Maghreb, 15%
Romania, 8% Somalia, 5% north Africa)
 Low level of education => almost primary education, 6.5% without formal
education
Street Shelters Total
% Males 95.18 76.19 80.15
% Immigrants 77.11 57.14 61.31
Average age 39.6 40.13 40.02
Average years of education 8.92 8.51 8.59
N. of years as homeless 4.79 3.77 3.97
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11. LEVEL OF EDUCATION
 Education distribution is in line with the one found in the general
population
 Higher proportion of people with no education
 As in the general population, on average, immigrants are more educated
than native born (9.1 vs 7.8) but it is not a cohort effect since age structure
is almost the same across the two groups
Total Street Shelters Italian Immigrant
No formal education 6.1 7.6 5.8 2.0 8.8
Primary 17.9 13.9 18.9 23.7 14.2
Lower secondary 43.2 35.4 45.2 57.9 33.9
Professional (max 3 years) 11.5 17.7 9.9 8.6 13.4
Upper secondary 15.4 21.5 13.8 6.6 20.9
Tertiary 5.6 3.8 6.1 1.3 8.4
Not answered 0.3 0.3 0.4
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12. REASONS FOR HOMELESSNESS
 Different paths lead to homelessness natives and foreign born
 Essential step of individual migration project (limited language proficiency, scarce
knowledge of the bureaucracy and the law, difficulties to entry in the labor and
housing markets)
 psychological/mental disorders or drug/alcohol abuse not essential => crucial
role of housing and migration policies, welfare regimes and labour market
institutions to weak or reinforce the thin line between urban poverty and
homelessness
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13. PAST and FUTURE EXPECTATIONS
 "How long did you expect to stay on the street when you first arrived?" "How
much longer do you expect to sleep on the street?"
=> upwards revision of expectations as the time elapses
All sample Street Shelter Italian Immigrant
Past expectations when starting homeless life
Less than 1 month 26.6 26.32 27.16 21.77 29.69
1 - 3 months 14.89 15.31 14.2 10.2 17.9
3 - 6 months 2.66 2.39 3.09 5.44 0.87
6-12 months 6.38 3.83 9.88 10.2 3.93
More than 1 year 6.91 7.66 6.17 10.2 4.8
Forever 2.93 4.31 1.23 6.8 0.44
Don't know 39.63 40.19 38.27 35.37 42.36
Current expectations when starting homeless life
Less than 1 month 13.83 19.72 12.46 14.29 13.54
1 - 3 months 16.22 18.31 15.74 12.93 18.34
3 - 6 months 8.51 1.41 10.16 7.48 9.17
6-12 months 10.37 2.82 12.13 10.88 10.04
More than 1 year 4.79 1.41 5.57 9.52 1.75
Forever 3.46 7.04 2.62 6.12 1.75
Don't know 42.82 49.3 41.31 38.78 45.41
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14. PAST and FUTURE EXPECTATIONS
 Past expectations are different form the sum of the number of months from
their first time on the street until the date of the survey and future
expectations => homeless duration not have been forecasted correctly.
 Only for 32 percent of the sample the initial forecast was correct and this
percentage is higher for italian than immigrants (36 % vs 30%)
=> homelessness is a totally unexpected shock and individuals are completely
unprepared to face it.
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15. LABOUR MARKET BEHAVIOUR
 Small fraction of working individuals, with a very low wage
=> extremely lower than the poverty line threshold in Italy and insufficient
to afford everyday life expenditures
 High fraction of irregular workers
 Significant exclusion from the labour market
All sample Italian Immigrant
Currently working 15.56 21.57 11.72
No contract 40.98 30.3 53.57
Dependent worker 4.92 3.03 7.14
Freelance 3.28 6.06
Cococo 3.28 3.03 3.57
Temporary contract 14.75 15.15 14.29
Permanent contract 8.2 6.06 10.71
Borsa lavoro / training/stage 24.59 36.36 10.71
Monthly wage - € 395 360.5 435.9
Start the job after becoming homeless 47.46 51.61 42.86
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16. INCOME
 56% have at least one source of income (47% of italians and 68% of
immigrants) . Monthly income is 375€: higher for italians (414 vs 339)
 Low take up rate to social assistance programs and welfare state
 Monthly average income from welfare 357 €, higher for italian
=> not lower than the poverty line threshold in Italy (246.5€ for
a two person household) but not sufficient to afford everyday
expenditures
 Take up rate decreases when excluding pension
 Informal sources of income are relevant (friends, relatives, charity, illegal
activities)
All sample Italian Immigrant
Income from welfare system 20.85 35.06 11.89
Monthly amount - € 357 373 327
Income from welfare system - specific for homeless 18.84 30.52 11.48
Monthly amount - € 344 357 322
Income sorces different from job and welfare system 20.1 22.08 18.85
Monthly amount - € 180 106 235
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17. DURATION OF INDIVIDUAL HOMELESS
SPELL
Dependent variable = N. of months from the
first night as homeless (1)
In - kind help -3.794
[7.050]
Female -20.264***
[6.947]
Age 4.500***
[1.473]
Age sq, -0.054***
[0.018]
Italian 29.848***
[8.767]
Years of education -1.724***
[0.644]
Currently employed 1.726
[8.192]
Welfare benefits 23.284**
[9.914]
Money from other sources 20.300**
[9.475]
Shelter -19.190**
[9.462]
Observations 330
R-squared 0.186
Robust standard errors in brackets
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18. EMPLOYMENT PROBABILITY
Dependent variable = 1 currently
employed (1)
Duration (in months) 0.000
[0.000]
In - kind help -0.130***
[0.042]
Female 0.143**
[0.065]
Age 0.011
[0.009]
Age sq, -0.000
[0.000]
Italian 0.127**
[0.055]
Years of education -0.000
[0.005]
Welfare benefits 0.046
[0.058]
Money from other sources -0.072*
[0.039]
Shelter -0.106*
[0.062]
Loan -0.094**
[0.042]
Lend -0.080*
[0.042]
Observations
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Pseudo R-squared 0.12
Homelessness, Migration and Demographic Change in
Robust standard errors in brackets
Europe

19. CONCLUSION
 Homeless population similar in many dimensions to the Italian general
population
 Variables affecting homeless duration spell and homeless people's labor
market behavior are in line with the underlying theory
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