The Just Housing research group conducts analyses of housing needs and inequalities, as well as of housing policies at different scales.
It was established in 2023 within the framework of an implementation agreement for technical-scientific dialogue and inter-institutional collaboration between the Department of Methods and Models for Economics, Territory and Finance at Sapienza University of Rome and the Department for Heritage Enhancement and Housing Policies of Roma Capitale.
The team includes Giorgio Alleva, Barbara Brollo, Filippo Celata, Alessandra Esposito, Daniela Festa, Andrea Pietrangeli and Ilaria Rossi, and is open to collaboration with other researchers working on similar topics and approaches. It also carries out extensive third-mission/public-engagement activities, in dialogue with numerous national and international media outlets and with various networks, movements and committees active locally and at national and European scales.
The group’s aim is to investigate housing conditions through a multidisciplinary approach, using both quantitative and qualitative methods, and to describe current and emerging needs, with a view to informing and orienting public action from a socio-spatial justice perspective.
The first territorial context in which the group conducted its investigations is the City of Rome.
Publications:
The Experience of Social Agencies for Housing in Italy describes this public instrument for moderating the residential rental market, highlighting its potential and critical issues through a comparative qualitative study of the implementation of Agenzie Sociali per l’Abitare in five Italian cities.
Housing Hardship in Rome offers an overview of the most significant contextual data for understanding the causes, dynamics, features and implications of the housing crisis in Rome and in Italy. It then examines the Roman context in greater depth through analysis of the 2021 census data at the municipal scale, considering the relationship between housing tenure and other socio-economic characteristics.
Public Housing in Rome: profiles, needs, and responses to housing poverty
(part one, part two, full report)
presents a broad analysis of the Rome Capital ERP call for applications, active since 2012, and of the characteristics of the households ranked for housing allocation as of December 2025. The report serves both to analyze the housing problems and needs of families who turn to the ERP system, and to assess the call for applications in light of a possible change to the current system of criteria and scores for housing allocation.