LPE Europe Student Housing Series – Rome

Rome, Rotterdam, Amsterdam, Glasgow, London, Berlin. The list goes on. Students struggle with finding affordable and decent accommodation, often being forced to extremely long commutes. International students often face even more precarious conditions, despite bringing so much to the local intellectual and economic life. In May 2023, vexed by the impossibility to find an affordable accommodation within feasible reach from the campus, students at Sapienza University of Rome staged a protest calling for intervention by the university administration and the local authorities. In September 2023 nothing seems to have changed, and the demonstrations have started again. Recent data show, indeed, that the Region faces a major public student housing shortage: for the a.y. 2023/2024 there are only 2800 available places in public student residences for economically disadvantaged students, leaving more than 10.000 still eligible students in search for appropriate housing. In the private market, moreover, the number of available accommodations is extremely low and the costs of rents have skyrocketed. The following interview outlines the declarations of the two student associations mainly involved in the protests: Sinistra Universitaria, whose activists have been sleeping in tents on campus for several days, and Cambiare Rotta, whose protests included broad demonstrations under the offices of the regional authorities. The two groups provide their own, separate views on the issues at stake.