A survey by indicators on housing conditions in a city of Lazio, Italy

Introduction. To test the applicability, in a little town of central Italy, of an indicator set proposed by WHO to assess housing stock condition and wellbeing of its inhabitants. Methods. The indicator set created by WHO to evaluate housing conditions (LARES project) concerns affordability, accessibility, crowding, extremes of indoor air temperature, dampness and mould growth, household hygiene, housing safety and accidents, crime and fear of crime indicators. It was tested in Veroli (FR), a little town of Lazio, Italy. After a territory’s analysis, a questionnaire, formulated to obtain data for indicator values calculation, was administered to 310 voluntary subjects, corresponding to 17% of town’s residents, living in 98 different houses. At the same time, a visual inspection of the building was carried out to collect data about the dwelling’s quality, physical condition and technical equipments. Results. We obtained he necessary data for value calculation for all the proposed indicators except affordability and extremes of indoor air temperature, because this kind of information was not available at local level. Although available space is inadequate for only 1% of inhabitants (less than 14 m2 per person), overcrowding index (number of rooms available per person) is 16%, suggesting that spaces are not well distributed or are without adequate divisions. 94% of houses showed physical environmental barriers (such as narrow doors, staircase without lift, height differences within dwelling) and 39% of households included at least one person with functional limitations. 45% of houses presented mould and humidity inconvenience and/or presence of moulds on the walls. For 20% of houses water furniture was irregular. Discussion and conclusions. Study by indicators is a brief and effective analysis method to evaluate housing condition. It should represent an advantageous way for local Authorities which aim to extend on a large scale this analysis, to quantify urban decline and to identify intervention areas requesting priority. Nevertheless, this tool is not completely applicable in little towns where disaggregated data and adequate information systems are not existing.