Public housing and the PINQuA in Italy

After decades of disinvestment in public housing in Italy, the European Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF) opens a window of opportunity for the regeneration of a housing segment displaying multidimensional (structural, spatial, economic, and social) criticalities. The PINQuA (Programma Innovativo Nazionale per la Qualità dell’Abitare), endowed with € 2,8 billion from the RRF, is a national programme, promoted by the Ministry of Infrastructure and Sustainable Mobility (MIMS), aimed at enhancing the quality of housing and urban spaces, with a particular focus on the requalification and increase of the social housing stock and the adoption of innovative models of management and social inclusion. After the identification of 159 projects eligible for funding, it has recently entered the implementation phase, to be concluded until 31 March 2026. As the PINQuA is currently considered the main tool for addressing severe deficiencies in the residential landscape of Italy, high hopes are associated with the programme. The objective of this paper is to understand whether these hopes are justified with respect to the regeneration needs of the Italian public housing stock, analysing (i) to which degree public housing is the object of regeneration activities in PINQuA projects; (ii) which types of regeneration activities have been admitted for funding; (iii) innovative elements that can be identified in projects; and (iv) shortcomings of the programme and related procedures. The research has been developed through document analysis and a series of semi-structured interviews with stakeholders from the public housing sector, public administrations, Federcasa (the Italian Federation of Public and Social Housing Providers) and academics.