Housing poverty has emerged as a structural challenge for democratic inclusion in the European Union. Drawing on recent empirical data, this article argues that housing deprivation cannot be reduced to a social or economic issue, but must be understood as a phenomenon with profound constitutional implications. Housing poverty affects the effective enjoyment of fundamental rights and contributes to a growing divide between those who are fully included in society and those who remain excluded, not free from material need and not equal in the exercise of rights.
Against this background, the article conceptualises housing poverty as a multidimensional and graduated form of housing exclusion, culminating in homelessness as its most severe manifestation. Through an analysis of the Italian legal order, the contribution illustrates how the lack of access to housing—and, in particular, the absence of a registered residence—operates as a structural barrier to the enjoyment of social, political, and civil rights. The Italian case is examined as a paradigmatic example of broader tensions affecting European constitutional democracies.
Building on this analysis, the article addresses the role of courts in protecting the right to housing and examines the impact of supranational law and jurisprudence on States’ positive obligations. It argues that the fight against housing poverty is central to safeguarding human dignity and to realising the vision of a society of free and equal persons embedded in the constitutional framework of the European Union.
