Housing Deprivation and Social Exclusion: A field experiment among homeless individuals
Homelessness and precarious living conditions have become pressing policy challenges in many industrialised countries, including Europe. The scale of the issue is alarming: on any given night in 2022, approximately 896,430 people in Europe were homeless (FEANTSA, 2023). This number has grown over the past decade, exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic and the rising presence of immigrants and refugees, around 5 million in Europe as of 2022 (UNHCR, 2022).
Housing fragility severely undermines individual well-being, leading to deteriorating health and a loss of human capital. It also results in substantial welfare losses, as many homeless individuals, often immigrants, could contribute meaningfully to the labour force, especially in jobs typically unfilled by native-born workers.
Despite its importance, there is limited evidence on the root causes of housing fragility and on effective strategies to reduce it. This proposal seeks to fill this gap by piloting a field experiment with homeless individuals -both natives and immigrants- in Milan, Italy.
We will test two integrated interventions aimed at promoting social inclusion and labour market participation:
The "Personal Space" Program (removing physical barriers): Participants will receive secure, 24/7-accessible lockers for storing personal belongings, improving their mobility and ability to search for work. These lockers will feature thoughtful architectural design to promote a sense of dignity and aesthetic appreciation—an element often lost under the harsh conditions of homelessness (Paris, 2022). Lockers will include customisable interiors and secure access (via key, badge, or secret code). Participants will sign a simple use agreement, including rules against storing illegal items.
The "Pathways to Stability" Program (addressing mental barriers): This program combines Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) with job training to build life, soft, and hard skills. CBT aims to reshape unhelpful thoughts and foster constructive behaviours, helping participants better regulate emotions, boost motivation, and regain a sense of agency. The course consists of 36 sessions (two per week, two hours each).
Given the complexity of the interventions and target population, this pilot phase is essential for fine-tuning the design and identifying key outcomes, such as job-seeking behaviour. We will randomly select 100 homeless individuals (sheltered or unsheltered) in Milan and assign them to two groups:
Control group: attends weekly informational workshops on available services (e.g., food, shelter, showers).
Treatment group: receives both the Personal Space and Pathways to Stability programs.
Due to the high vulnerability and limited stability of the population, we will not isolate the effects of each treatment arm in this pilot. However, we will gather survey data to explore which components may be more impactful.
We will collect data at three points: baseline, after three months, and after six months. The pilot sample is expected to resemble the target population for a full-scale RCT. Therefore, findings from the pilot will directly inform the design and implementation of the main trial.