“There is not a culture in Rome to help students find a home or make it more available”, complains Luca M., a 24-year-old student who studies Maths at Sapienza University. He has been searching for an apartment or a room for months. Not finding any accommodation, he is forced to commute by train between the university and his hometown of Vallerano, which is three hours away by train from Rome.
Luca is not alone in his struggle. Most of the almost 600.000 non-residence students are affected by the same issue. The severe shortage of public and affordable housing for university students is a critical problem in the Italian university system, especially given the high inflation driving up the cost of living and rents in major university cities. On average, a single room now costs €529 per month.
“It is very hard to find a house in Rome. I think we all know that”, says Miria S., a 23-year-old Law student. She considers herself fortunate but acknowledges her case is unique. She managed to secure her apartment through personal connections, as relying on public advertisements or real estate agencies would have been much tougher.
Foreign students encounter even greater difficulties. Some fall victim to scams. Others, after months of fruitless searching, are forced to consider returning to their country of origin. Those who manage to find housing, often end up far away from the university and must contend with poorly functioning public transportation.
Around a year ago, university students started protesting high rents and scarcity of housing by staying in tents at the campuses of universities to make their voices heard. Yet it turns out that no adequate solution has been found.
And if that were not enough, the Jubilee in Rome brought out new critical aspects. Many tenants converted their long-term properties into short-term ones. And those who decided to continue renting for a long time skyrocketed the prices to profit from this situation.
Given the problematic circumstances, the government planned to build at least 60,000 student beds by June 2026. This intervention is part of the National Recovery and Resilience Plan (PNRR), Italy’s project financed by the European Commission to address the COVID-19 crisis and long-standing structural challenges in Italy.
With just a year and a half remaining, the government is still far behind its target for the number of beds. Testimonies collected by UDU (Unione degli Universitari), the National Union of University Students, highlight that, at this rate, the deadline is unlikely to be met. And there is a risk of losing 1.2 billion euros.
UDU identifies three primary reasons for this situation. First, the investment per bed is insufficient. Second, the extremely tight deadlines prevent large-scale and ambitious building redevelopment projects. Third, the Ministry’s poor initial performance resulted in approximately two years being wasted. “The most critical issue was the Ministry of University and Research’s attempt to classify thousands of outdated beds as new, which led to the European Commission rejecting the first tranche of funding”, as UDU stated in their note.
According to the students, while little can be done now to address the second and third issues, action can still be taken on the first. This requires more than limited, targeted measures like the one currently under consideration. Instead, a significant financial incentive should be introduced to encourage public entities to participate in the public notice aimed at creating new beds in student housing or residences for higher education institutions.
To address this, the Union has proposed a “Save PNRR”, which aims to facilitate public participation and create at least 20,000 new affordable beds. The amendment highlights the need to engage the university community, which hasn’t been involved so far.
In conclusion, the question of when the students’ desperate search would end remains uncertain; however, what can be claimed certainly is that to better focus on their studies, they need to find housing at the earliest and the support of the government and the acceleration of the process are indispensable.
