SOCIAL HOUSING, 30 ACCOMODATIONS INAUGURATED TODAY IN PISTOIA The new building was realised by Fondo Housing Toscano, managed by Investire SGR

• Belvedere in Housing project includes 30 homes for subsidized rent with the elderly and young couples as the preferred recipients, as well as support for temporary residential needs.
• The initiative is promoted by Fondo Housing Toscano, the platform for increasing the supply of social housing in the region managed by Investire SGR (Banca Finnat group) and participated in by the CDP Real Asset SGR's Fondo Investimenti per l'Abitare, the Region of Tuscany and the main local foundations of banking origin, including Fondazione Caript.
• The project, through the technical-social advisor Abitare Toscana, aims at innovation by seeking a synergy between young couples and the self-sufficient elderly, thanks also to the contribution of high-tech solutions

Thirty houses for a subsidised rent, with preferential recipients being the elderly and young couples, as well as supporting temporary residential needs. Belvedere in Housing project is now a reality in Pistoia: the first families have in fact already signed the lease and the housing will be delivered starting in January 2024.

The initiative was inaugurated today in Via Stelvio in the presence of the mayor of Pistoia Alessandro Tomasi, the Regional Assessor for Social Policies, Housing and International Cooperation Serena Spinelli, the president of Fondazione Caript Lorenzo Zogheri, Diego Brescianini, fund coordinator Social Infrastructure of Investire SGR Spa, Davide Innocenti of Sunia Pistoia and Tancredi Attinà, CEO of Abitare Toscana Social Manager of the project.

The apartments, which are part of a single property that has just been completed, were built by the Fondo Housing Toscano, managed and promoted by Investire SGR (Banca Finnat Group) and participated by FIA - Fondo Investimenti per l'Abitare di CDP Real Asset SGR, the Region of Tuscany, Fondazione Caript and the main foundations of banking origin in the area.

The Fund's goal is to increase the supply of housing in the area at reduced rents for the so-called 'grey bracket', i.e. people whose income is too high to obtain public housing but insufficient to access housing on the open market. But also to promote the spread of residential services for projects dedicated to specific targets of fragility: three of the 30 dwellings may be managed by Third Sector entities to be selected through a public notice to be issued in January 2024.

For the project, Investire SGR signed the agreement with the Municipality of Pistoia - defining the criteria for implementing the project, including the requirements of the recipients, rents and duration constraints - and the Supplementary Agreements with the tenants' unions.

The settlement was built on an area that the Fund purchased from the municipality of Pistoia to build housing and services. In addition to the flats, tenants are provided with well-equipped common spaces where they can carry out activities, designed with the needs of all age groups in mind.

In the sign of sharing is also Abito in Community, a platform connected to an App for smartphones that offers a virtual space where it is possible to collaborate and compare notes. The platform is made available free of charge to residents by Abitare Toscana, the social manager of the 'Belvedere in Housing' project, which is entrusted with the task of selecting housing recipients.

The first flats were assigned with a notice that remained open from July to September 2023. Around 50 applications were received, half of which met the requirements of the notice. Today there is a second notice that will expire on 22 December 2023 to select additional households.

Available to tenants, with rents starting at 350 euros per month (excluding VAT and ancillary charges), are flats of different types, with parking spaces and cellars, central heating systems, all in energy class A4. The lease term is six years, renewable for a further two.

"With Belvedere in Housing we inaugurate a further social housing intervention in Tuscany, which through the action of Fondo Housing Toscano is growing in the region," said Serena Spinelli, Regional Assessor for Social Policies, Housing and International Cooperation. This is an important fact, espacially for the Pistoia community, but not only, because it represents an answer to housing needs, with housing at a lowered rent for those who cannot access it at market prices, as well as an orientation towards a quality of living that contributes to sustainability, social inclusion, and community cohesion. These are the fundamental aspects of social housing that, as a Region, we intend to promote, with projects such as these that envisage housing places as places for living and relations, with services and common spaces, also aimed at the inclusion of frail, lonely or persons with reduced autonomy'.

'We believe in social housing because it provides a housing option for those who cannot afford a house on the open market,' said Lorenzo Zogheri, president of Fondazione Caript. 'This is why we participated in Fondo Housing Toscano and why we have implemented other important projects of this type in the past.

“Fondo Housing Toscano” pointed out Diego Brescianini, fund manager of Investire SGR, "is one of 11 real estate funds under management dedicated to promoting social housing throughout Italy in partnership with CDP Real Asset SGR and local banking foundations. In Tuscany, when fully operational, more than 1,200 flats in social housing will be available through the fund, mainly intended for long-term rental at subsidised rents, as a concrete response to the current problem of access to 'housing'. The assessment of the social impact of the Tuscan Housing Fund highlights, among the main results achieved, the triggering of innovative partnerships involving public-private partnerships both in terms of the type of 'patient' investors involved and the multidisciplinary nature of the services offered, also with the involvement of the territorial Third Sector and with the valuable support of the social manager Abitare Toscana," Brescianini concluded.

"Belvedere in Housing is the result of collaboration with institutions and local players and represents a new milestone achieved by the Integrated System of Funds that revolves around our FIA fund to support the development of housing infrastructure," says Filippo Catena, Head of Social Housing CDP Real Asset SGR - "the Pistoia initiative perfectly summarises our commitment to reducing housing deprivation not only in large metropolitan areas, but in all cities in Italy where there is a need for a concrete response to evolving socio-demographic needs, while generating - at the same time - a significant impact in terms of urban regeneration and social inclusion".

"The idea of 'community' is strongly integrated in the experimentation of Integrated Social Management that we are promoting through Fondo Housing Toscano, and so in Pistoia, with a dedicated investment by the Region of Tuscany on Integrative Community Services," says Tancredi Attinà, CEO of Abitare Toscana, Social Manager of Fondo Housing Toscano. The possible evolution of the collaborative neighbourhood model typical of social housing towards urban housing represents a new way of living in the city by experimenting with cultural welfare, addressing the issue of healthy cities, activating energy culture, enhancing multifunctional housing within social housing, and innovating cooperation and the third sector as a form of sustainable management of housing contexts and their respective neighbourhoods,' Attinà concluded.