Alloggi protetti per anziani. Lettura critica delle politiche attuate da Regione Lombardia / Protected apartments for elderly. Critical analysis of the policies implemented by Lombardy Region.

To promote and support the development of the infrastructural endowment of the regional territory, in 1991 the Lombardy Region, with the Regional Law 33/91, established the FRISL Fund (Social Infrastructures for Lombardy). The Fund has financed almost 3,000 projects with a resource allocation of around € 1.600 million. Within this important line of funding are the innovative "Protected mini-apartments for the elderly – Mini alloggiprotetti per anziani" financed by action N of the FRISL 1997/98 call and characterized by specific management and structural requirements. These were structures made up of a set of lodgings characterized from architectural, safety and hygiene points of view, and completed with welfare services aimed at elderly people who are self-sufficient or with slight disabilities. The objective was to give the elderly the possibility to lead a life as normal as possible, integrated with the society, maintaining daily social relations in order to delay or avoid the possible transfer to social and health facilities such as the nursing homes that should be limited to situations of important non-self-sufficiency. On the base of this first experience, in Lombardy region other interventions have coped with the need of specific residential facilities for elderly. Considering this scenario, thepaper analyzescritically the twenty-year experience in the Lombardy Region. Starting from the “Protected mini-apartments for the elderly”, the analisis pays particular attention to the typological, dimensional, fruitive and management aspects, considering the single building product also in relation to the environmental context, the public space and the accessibility.