Towards Housing Justice: the Role of Social Housing in Tackling Housing Insecurity in Italy and Finland

Several European cities are currently experiencing the escalation of housing unaffordability with alarming consequences on city dwellers. This thesis investigates the contemporary housing crisis not as an exceptional phenomenon, but as the structural outcome of state-led neoliberal reforms and financialization. Situating itself within the critical framework of housing justice, this research seeks to unveil the systemic mechanisms driving housing precarity, exploring how housing policies shape the residential experience. Specifically, the study addresses the research question: “what role does social housing play in tackling the issue of housing insecurity?” Adopting a qualitative and exploratory approach, this study examines how social housing, as a partially-off-market tenancy model, can help address housing precarity by reducing the extent to which access to housing is determined by market forces. To account for the non-uniform institutional responses across Europe, an analysis is conducted between two countries with diverse national welfare and housing systems: Italy and Finland. The study relies on semi-structured interviews with experts in the field. For the Finnish context, it analyzes the work of a non-profit social housing foundation; for the Italian context, it focuses on a non-profit foundation, a third-sector organization, and the Municipality of Bergamo. By evaluating these distinct social housing models within their respective housing systems, the findings describe their functioning, and assess the extent to which each country considers housing justice in its social housing policies. Ultimately, this thesis contributes to the housing justice literature by examining the implementation of the human right to housing through diverse institutional frameworks.