Presentation given by Paolo Pe

1. Governance of homeless service provision at local level: one-size-fits-all
or diversity of models across Europe?
Contents
17 June 2011, Committee of the Regions, Brussels
• Background Notes
A harmonised national framework • Main Argument
vs. • Considerations
diversity in the implementation of • Conclusion and Policy
local models Recommendations
Contribution by Paolo Pezzana
fio.PSD President - Italy
A harmonised national framework vs. diversity in the implementation of local models A harmonised national framework vs. diversity in the implementation of local models
By Paolo Pezzana - Italy 1 By Paolo Pezzana - Italy 2
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Background Notes 1 Background Notes 2
• Italy is a Mediterranean Welfare System: • HHE in Italy was recognized for the first time by the national law in 2000,
– Low Decommodisation; Corporative redistribution; high familisation/patronage; with the law n. 328, which delineated specific but temporary provisions
mix of public and private service providers; local responsibilities against HHE in a general frame of local services, homogenous at national
• Italian at-risk-of-poverty rate is 24,7% according to ISTAT (EU level;
average 23,1%); 2,9% suffer severe material deprivation and 3%
• The Italian Constitution was reformed in 2001, passing all the competencies
has a very low work intensity. All data is to be considered in
for the social issues at the Regional Level except for the definition of
account of strong differences in regional distribution
homogeneous national essentials levels of service provisions (art. 117 m
• Italy is a country of 60.000.000 where no official data is available
Italian Constitution); by this way law 328/00 gone substantially
concerning the HHE population
unimplemented
According to the Eurostat, the Italian Social Expenditure represents
25,7% of GDP, close to the EU average (even though Italian GDP • No essential level has been defined until now;
growth is low compared to other EU countries) and it is mainly devoted • Regional laws on social services, where available, don’t report specific
to health, pensions and labour market insiders. The amount policy measures against HHE (often HHE is not mentioned at all)
devoted to social exclusion is only a 0,1% of the total; while the official
figure for housing support is 0,0%.
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By Paolo Pezzana - Italy 3 By Paolo Pezzana - Italy 4
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Background Notes 3 Central Argument
Service Provision against HHE in Italy began in the middle ages and was started by
religious congregations and municipalities managing canteens and hostels;
• Most Services were nationalized in 1895 (Italy born in 1861) but no organized Because of the lack of a COMMON STRATEGIC PLAN on an Ultra-
public system was established until the 1970s; Local level, local systems contrasting HHE are subject to
• From the 70s until 2000 several local systems established formal networks of INSTITUTIONAL and NORMATIVE PRESSURES which, even in
services for the HHE in a “welfare-mix” social policy frame; the absence of different cultural and environmental conditions,
• Law 328/2000 purported to make this community network system mandatory for generate an ISOMORPHIC DRIVE towards a MANAGERIAL
all Regions, but it wasn’t implemented;
approach to the problem, characterised by the
• As of now, no national nor regional strategies against HHE are available in
official documents;
CONCENTRATION of PUBLIC expense and intervention
• In the frame of Lisbon Strategy OMC, the Italian Governent reported in its selectively oriented to CONTROL and CONTAIN the most evident
NAP/incl (then NSRspsi) to have adopted specific measures or plans against segments of the homeless population
HHE but, in fact, no strategy has been implemented (Governmental reports
mostly referred to some possible effects on HHE population coming from general
policy measures adopted within national budget law) .
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2. Considerations 1 Considerations 2
• The argument is based upon fio.PSD members' experience in the last 10 • For practical reasons, the 30 types identified by the national research are here
years, supported by the early findings of the first national survey on grouped in 5 clusters of services according to their main scope:
service providers for the Homeless that fio.PSD conducted in conjunction – Services for the management of the homeless social “emergency” in the short
with the Italian Government, ISTAT and Caritas Italiana during 2010 (data term (EST)
is not yet published and is embargoed until September 2011). – Services for the management of the homeless social “emergency” in the medium-
• The survey has adopted a classification of the services for Homeless to-long term (ELT)
people existing in Italy based on 30 typologies covering services for – Services for social accompaniment of the homeless in the short term (AST)
Housing and Basic Needs support, legal services and services for – Services for social accompaniment and promotion of the homeless in the
individual social and psychological accompaniment. medium-to-long term (ALT)
• For this presentation trends and current situation have been examined in – Services for the enforcement of homeless people basic rights and for the
Rome, Milan and 4 major Regional Italian Capitals, northern, central and assesment of their situation (BRA)
southern (Bologna, Torino, Genova, Napoli).
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Considerations 3 Considerations 4
• The main forces which shape the context in which local services against HHE are Given the absence of a general framework/strategy and due to the forces
established have been analyzed according to the following model: which shape the field of HHE contrast in Italy, two main structuring pathways
Mimetic Forces Compulsory Forces Prescriptive Forces generally emerge among services and local systems:
Progressive Only formal planning Federalist
formalisation of social
workers' competences
culture Constitutional law
1 EST BRA/AST ALT
Mimetic Forces Media display of HHE Pressures on the Lack of rights claim This is the case for a majority of “traditional organizations”, mainly faith-based, following the inclusion into
services matter of security essential levels local networks of service providers and a new interpretation of theirown mission
Outcomes evaluation HHE fragmented Budget bonds This is the case of many organizations mainly created for lobbying and advocacy purposes and then
strategies culture
integrated into wider networks also as service providers
HHE 2
Networking social Welfare services
dynamics marginalization Immigration laws
public procurement
BRA ALT EST/ELT
Compulsory Prescriptive ……. “Crisis danger” dynamics A third pathway BRA/EST AST seems to exist among the few in-house services
Forces Forces provided by local authorities as the result of a combination of the original mission of
Lack of HHE
dedicated structures rights enforcement in the public sector and the “network effect” resulting from the
…….
need for collaboration with the “third sector” and its physical and social infrastructure.
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Considerations 5 Considerations 6
• Given the lack of a common strategic plan and that of a national • Those AST/ALT services which no longer have the ability to generate
productive outcomes (exit from HHE) in combination with universal
strategy for the endorsement of housing and income rights, the
welfare instruments, are subject to an “administrative conversion” and
structuring of local HHE services tends to develop starting from those
cease to be means of promotion, becoming, in fact, extensions of ELT
historically available “structures” and following, when possible, with
services for social restraint and control of the phenomenon.
the modification of the internal structure in accordance with the different
• The recent appearance of numerous new BRA services, even in
interpretations of the various needs evolving through time. A partial
municipalities where many other services are active, probably represents an
exception is represented by those time periods known as “of cold
awareness, existing among service providers, of the need for a new
emergency” during which structures with different destinations are often defence and promotion of the rights of Homeless people even in those
temporarily adapted to the function of low threshold shelters contexts where these seemed to have been already acquired
• A high number of AST/ALT services were created for the purpose of • The Italian system's isomorphism is furthermore evidenced by the almost
directing people to local services and guiding them through a process of absolute absence of preventive instruments or services against HHE
social inclusion within the community; whenever the capabilities of and also by the fact that no substantial innovation has been introduced in
these servicesare diminished, the original function of AST/ALT the field of HHE services in the last ten years.
instruments fails.
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3. Conclusions Policy Recommendations
• Without a universal and effective welfare system endorsing the right to
housing, as well as other fundamental rights, and without any specific In a federal system with regional and local exclusive
strategies of connection between HHE services and the potential for attributions in social policy making, such as Italy’s, albeith a
community involvement, exit from HHE cannot be accomplished by service lack of supporting legislation, effective instruments and
provision alone and, consequentially, services risk becoming mere incentives could be given to competent local authorities to
“administrators” of the problem positevely combact the current condition of HHE. A strategic
• Structural differences between contrasting systems combating HHE are not national framework, constructed within the parametres of the
the result of the dichotomous in-house/welfare mix, but rather of the lack of
OMC, and supported on a central level by effective data
a universal welfare system. Such a system should aim to assimilate those
collection, monitoring and evaluation, could help produce
subjects exiting HHE into an effective welfare arrangement.
• The lack of a unified national strategy against HHE, magnifies the these results through means which are more sophisticated then
propensity for a managerial, rather than promotional, approach to the mere restraining interventions .
problem at the local level. Moreover, even if there were such a strategy, it However, as long as certain rights remain undefined, the ability to
would prove largely ineffective without the support of an underlying exit HHE remains substantially based on individual effort and
compatible legal framework. happenstance rather than on progressive system intervention.
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Thank You
Paolo Pezzana
fio.PSD President
www.fiopsd.org
presidenza@fiopsd.org
+393456528625
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