Lodging a student

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As cities become larger, its inhabitants feel more and more isolated by the society. This is especially true for the elderly, with little or no family connections. At the same time there is a strong need of finding new housing solutions, pushing communities to build and expand the geographical extend of the urban environment. People are forced to move out of the city, and spend good part of their time commuting, with severe consequences both for the environment and their health (both in terms of added stress and in waste of time that could be spent in more useful activities). This is affecting mostly people with lower income, families and students. When the commune of the city of Milan (Italy) realized that a good share of the 40000 students of the University of Milan were not able to afford a lodging in the city, and were therefore forced to commute, found a very creative solution. While students were living out of the city, there were plainly of elderly residents, living alone in a large apartment in the city, and feeling quite lonely. The Milan commune started a project in 2004 called prendi a casa uno studente (Lodge a student at home), with the intent of solving several problems at once. Students would get a cheap accommodation and pensioners would get company. The student would pay a fee of 250 € to the tenant, who will so earn some extra money to add to their normally low monthly income. The tenant can receive an additional contribution up to 1.000 € paid by the communality for renovating the apartment. Careful match between tenant and students profiles are performed with the help of psychologists, based on their needs, temperaments and expectations. Whenever possible, the tenant and students are also matched based on the location of the apartment and its distance from the university, so to minimize the needs for transportations. The contract is one year long, with the possibility to be extended one more year, but can be withdraw at any time. Moreover, there are regular meetings organized to monitor the level of satisfactions of both parts.

The program was initially adopted only by the Politecnico di Milano for their students, but thanks to the immediate success has been extended to all universities in Milan. Since 2008 also PhD students as well as young researchers and health professionals can access the program.

Category: Creative solutions, Political actions, Sustainable Cities
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