Segregazione spaziale e condizione abitativa

The chapter deals with the issue of spatial segregation of the poor in the city of Milan, and its relations with housing policies. Housing in Milan is still a relevant problem, mainly because of the erosion of the private rent stock, the persistent growth of housing costs, and the inadequacy of the social housing sector in meeting a growing and diversified demand. These problems become more visible in the urban peripheries, which are considered - more than ever - the places of the social DISAGIO. Empirical evidence, though, do not confirm this common sense representation, showing a poverty homogeneously distributed throughout the city. It is not possible to assert the existence of poor ghettos in Milan, but a sort of spotted or leopard pattern. However, a spatial clustering technique highlights several areas of micro-concentration of disvantaged people at a building or estate level and located mainly in the urban outskirts. If economic DISAGIO, defined on a poverty line calculated on the basis of income, is not spatially segregated, a different situation emerges considering subjective definition of the poverty given by actors. Evidences clearly show a high concentration in the peripheries of people who consider themselves as poor. This can be explained in two ways: 1) Income is not an exhaustive indicator of real social DISAGIO as perceived by actors; social DISAGIO lies also in other problems, such as bad housing conditions, advanced age, weak social networks, poor social services, problems which are certainly more present in the urban peripheries than in the centre. 2) An important role is played by the process of stigmatisation of the peripheries, which, under the pressure of a mediatic allarmism, become more and more devalued. This process have strong effects on the inhabitants of these areas, who seem to internalize the social stigma, considering themselves poorer than they objectively are. Finally, the chapter gives an overview of the past and the future of the social housing neighbourhoods, and an outline of who is included and who excluded by the social housing market.