Italy: Court rules city authorities cannot exclude immigrants from public housing

Rome: On July 22, a court in the Italian city of Bologna ruled against the exclusion of a foreign worker in the lists for access to Italian public housing.

A Bologna court ruling against the exclusion of a foreign worker in the lists for access to Italian public housing was published on July 22, calling the exclusion “discriminatory”.

The case had been reported by the anti-discrimination office of the Bologna municipality (SPAD) and the Association for Legal Studies on Immigration (ASGI) took action on it.

The court noted that it had ruled on the basis of the principle of equality as established by the 2011/98 EU directive, noting that it is valid for all those holding long-term stay permits.

“The sentence n. 1902/2025 removes the claim established by Art. 40, paragraph 6, of the Unified Text on Immigration of 1998, which had previously required proof solely from non-EU workers of being currently employed, both at the time of the request and the time of the assignment” of public housing,” it added.

ASGI commented by saying that the ruling is important and that it “restores the principle of equality not only for the person in question but for all foreigners making a request for public housing and for those who will do so in future.”

ASGI added that the court had “not only ordered ACER [Azienda Casa Emilia-Romagna –that manages the housing lists] to reinsert the petitioner onto the list” but had also warned both the municipality of Bologna, as well as ACER on the behavior in the future.

It is understood the two bodies will be prevented either from refusing to insert someone on the list because of their foreign background, or from excluding them from considerations in other ways when there are housing places available.

The ruling should mean that non-EU citizens will not have to prove they have contracted employment or self-employment in order to qualify for the lists.

Thus, ASGI said, any public housing lists cannot be discriminatory towards workers of foreign origins. The association expressed the hope that the Emilia-Romagna regional government would also modify the regional law n. 24/2001, “which represents the basis of this discrimination.”