Urban and Social Regeneration ‒ Cities of Tomorrow
Section
As part of the “Cities of Tomorrow” series, Philea interviewed Bianca Viarizzo, Fondazione Sviluppo e Crescita CRT, to delve into the foundation’s social impact investment strategies. Bianca shared insights on the foundation’s investments in social housing initiatives, particularly in Turin, and its efforts in urban and social regeneration.
Many of the global challenges we face play out at the level of cities. These complex, interconnected and dynamic ecosystems are where many social, economic, environmental and political factors converge. This series, curated by Philea’s Funders Forum on Sustainable Cities, showcases philanthropic initiatives that aim at making cities sustainable.
Introduction
Fondazione Sviluppo e Crescita CRT is a non-profit organisation founded on the initiative of Fondazione CRT. It contributes to the development of Piedmont and Valle d’Aosta through social impact investing in social housing, and urban and social regeneration and innovation.
In its 15 years of existence, Fondazione Sviluppo e Crescita CRT has dedicated significant resources to social real estate funds and to funds investing in companies with social aims. The goal is to improve the range of services offered and to foster the growth of a social entrepreneurial ecosystem by providing adequate resources, but also by stimulating entrepreneurial spirit using patient capital. The foundation offers a gradual accompaniment to equip the social companies to become self-reliant and evolve towards a fair and sustainable business model.
| City | Turin, Italy |
| Period | 2007-ongoing |
| Primary constituents | Inhabitants |
| Partners and collaborations | Housing managers, social cooperatives, other foundations, local administrations, universities |
When did Fondazione Sviluppo e Crescita CRT start to work at the city level, and what was the motivation behind this?
Bianca Viarizzo: Our foundation was created by Fondazione CRT with the specific objective of making social investments in the Piedmont and Valle d’Aosta regions. Our focus on individual cities, such as Turin, is a consequence of our mission, and particularly the fact that the largest part of our social investments is in social housing (around €85 million).
Why focus on social housing? And how is it linked to your commitment to create sustainable cities?
There is so much evidence on the impact of social housing in the transformation of cities and their sustainable development – especially when adopting certain models that allow for addressing different challenges and needs of inhabitants. With a sustainable financial model, the impact that these initiatives can have and their spillover effects on the sustainability of cities are noticeable, and so we see this as a great way to invest.
For context it’s important to mention that social housing legislation in Italy is regional. In our region, Piedmont, social housing is characterised primarily by a temporary housing solution (maximum 24 months), except for some initiatives that are implemented by the third sector and social cooperatives, which include shared housing.
Historically, Italian foundations have been very active in this field. At Fondazione Sviluppo e Crescita CRT , in collaboration with Fondazione CDP, we have pioneered a significant social housing fund with a focus on sustainability. This investment received substantial contributions by Italian foundations of banking origin.
Although there are additional interventions – including for example schools, libraries, cultural and social centres, etc. – social housing remains a sort of anchor for this work. The type of social housing model that our foundation has adopted is crucial because it offers to local governments alternative, sustainable solutions in cities that can be replicated to improve or expand the current social housing offer. In Italy social housing has spread like wildfire: While social housing funds are quite common in the north of Italy, there are very few in the south, so being able to propose these models that could be replicated across Italy is important for our foundation.
Another aspect to keep in mind, to understand the context of our work, is that in Italy 70% of citizens are homeowners, but these people tend to be older. Young people are much less able, for social and economic reasons, to buy a house. And despite many people saying that young people prefer “fluid forms” (see a 2023 research by Fondazione Feltrinelli), generally speaking young people want to buy their own house, but they can’t. To help them, we believe we should simplify and modify a series of rules that are currently an obstacle to their buying. Social housing initiatives, and our work as a foundation, also try to address some of these aspects.
A good example that demonstrates our commitment to creating sustainable cities – including social housing and beyond – is “Torino city of the future accelerator”, which is an evolution of “Techstars smart mobility”: This is the first acceleration programme in Europe aimed at start-ups that offer innovative solutions to improve transport, housing, energy efficiency, infrastructure and basic services like education and health. It aims to promote the development of the city of Turin as an international ecosystem for innovation, and to establish it as a model for success in Italy and Europe.
Could you give us more examples of your social housing interventions?
We’ve invested in and have tested several social housing projects. A good example of this work is our investment in Cascina Fossata, a sustainable model based on a simple principle whereby the Social Fund invests in the project and engages a professional property manager to handle the rental income. The model combines the specific features of social housing, a multipurpose centre and a community gathering place. Thanks to these different uses, the property manager can sustainably balance the income and the housing support.
There is evidence that social housing initiatives can improve and transform whole neighbourhoods, especially when placed in buildings or areas that have a strong significance for the inhabitants, as is the case for Cascina Fossata. This model is easily adaptable and replicable by public entities and particularly useful in order to prevent the “ghetto dynamic” that often occurs in disadvantaged neighbourhoods or in other social housing projects.
Following the same principles, we are now piloting “Porteriato Sociale (translated as “Social Concierge”), a social housing project managed by a cooperative and involving elderly people who are integrated into a multigenerational context. We are trying to create a model that can be financially accessible and structurally adequate for the elderly tenants on the one hand, and financially sustainable for the investor on the other hand. This is for us the objective of the investment of these funds: They certainly have a return that is lower compared to the market, but there’s still a gain. Fondazione Sviluppo e Crescita CRT does not consider non-refundable investments, although we may give a contribution in certain cases to test a new model or experiment with an idea that will then become sustainable in the longer run once we have found the right blueprint (as is the case for Porteriato Sociale).
While the largest social housing interventions are concentrated in the city of Turin, we also have smaller initiatives for social housing in other parts of the region, often implemented in collaboration with other actors in the third sector.
Do you evaluate your interventions? How do they transform cities?
We do evaluate the impact of our interventions, and we share our learnings publicly. Our evaluations are conducted taking into account different elements and criteria: First, our theory of change; second, an analysis of the territory which includes the impact on the inhabitants and on given areas; and ultimately the spillover benefits for the territory at large (e.g. public transport, perception of safety, fruition of other services surrounding the social housing project, etc.).
We’ve recently conducted an ex-post evaluation: Together with Urban Lab Turin, we conducted research on the inhabitants’ needs. We collected data on what is there and what is missing, what citizens want. Because after all, any real estate intervention has to do with people and their needs. We took into account also the population’s demographic, since this has changed overtime.
For example, the area of “Borgo Vittoria” has changed significantly over time: Historically, it had a strong workers identity, mostly elderly, but there is now a demographic of younger migrants who have moved to the neighbourhood more recently and have changed the dynamics quite a lot. In that neighbourhood, we’ve done a housing intervention where we restored a cascina from 1600. These cascinas were sort of supermarkets from the old times, where people went to buy milk, butter and other basic supplies, and this continued until after the 2nd World War. Hence, this was a place with a very strong identity. The renovation project cost more than €18 million, and it was inaugurated during the Covid-19 pandemic. Even though the time of the launch was far from ideal, it ended up being useful precisely because of the challenging times of isolation that societies were experiencing, and the need for a new sense of community.
Another example is Sharing Torino, which was originally housing for postal workers, and it was then acquired by the municipality (through a specific legislation). After the acquisition, the municipality, through a public tender, made an agreement with a management company and a financial investor, specifically our foundation, for several decades. This agreement required the property to be renovated and used primarily for social housing and emergency accommodation. The management company leases the entire complex from the owner and, in accordance with the usage quotas established in the tender, runs the property, offering services while maximising profitability. This is achieved particularly through short-term rentals and hotel accommodations for tourists, as well as apartments for city users and students, offsetting the much lower returns from emergency housing. The project became a reference point for information and encounters for the inhabitants of the area, which is a bit isolated. We have conducted surveys with the inhabitants with Urban Lab Turin, and we found that there is a lot of openness and availability from the housing manager to help us with this kind of assessment and evaluation work.
We look at the evaluation practice as a dynamic picture which helps us to understand where we are going with our interventions and how they’re shaping cities. The key elements we take into account are, on the one side, the social aspect, which has to do with the needs of citizens and the social effect and benefits of the intervention, and on the other side, with the urban aspect, which has to do with the relation of the place to those who live it.
Who are your key partners in this work?
Depending on the initiative, we collaborate with different stakeholders who engage with the various aspects of the project. Usually, we work closely with the social cooperatives and the building managers, in particular in our efforts to try and understand the progress and impact of the projects we fund, within the complex context of the neighbourhood where they are based. For example, for the housing project with the elderly that I mentioned before, in addition to the housing manager there is a cooperative which is tasked with supporting inhabitants with their needs, and being the link with the local administration, as well as managing all relationships with the different non-profit entities that rotate around the project. They then give us and the co-funding partner, which for this project is Fondazione Compagnia di San Paolo, regular feedback and keep us duly informed.
More generally, we consider essential in terms of partnerships our international exchanges (for which our participation in Philea’s Funders Forum for Sustainable Cities is particularly key), as for us it’s very important to learn from and be exposed to best practices from other foundations: This opens our eyes and give us new perspectives that we then adapt to our context.
What are the characteristics of an ideal future city for you?
Firstly, I don’t think ideal places exist: They are beautiful in theory, but then we need to be realistic. The ideal city is an inclusive city in the sense that every inhabitant can access its services easily, at any age and in any economic condition. I believe that services are the basis of quality of life: I have always thought that it’s so much better to live in a world where everyone is healthy rather than those places with huge social and economic differences. For me, the ideal city is a city where everyone has dignity, everyone can access education, health, recreational services and feel actively part of that process, being able to use public transport easily and comfortably. The dream to me is “the city of 15 minutes”, which I know cannot exist in reality because it’s a very radical chic dream and not based on real life. I am lucky enough as I go to the office by walking, but I’m very aware that this is a privilege and not everyone has the same possibility. An ideal city is a city which allows me to do all that I need to do, in the least stressful and most efficient way, and makes me feel part of that city.
I can recommend the book “Airbnb, la ville ubérisée”, which is a book that is a bit extreme but that tells a story that hurts me a lot, about how cities are losing their souls and identities and specificities as their inhabitants are excluded in favour of mass tourism, taking away the humanity of the city. The cities end up looking all the same in the end. I find that Europe is so rich culturally in the sense that each city has its own culture, identity, uniqueness. So when I see that we are losing all of this, it hurts a lot. If we don’t do something, we’ll lose our cities, and we won’t be able to get them back. When you standardise everything, you lose the uniqueness. So, I think my ideal city is a city that maintains its specificities from all points of view. Foundations can’t do everything, but they can certainly be a nudge for all the different networks and systems in the city, to shift this reality.
Philanthropy Curiosity Corner
+Risorse, Fondazione CRT Sviluppo e Crescita’s crowdfunding platform
In addition to other philanthropic tools, some philanthropic organisations develop their crowdfunding platforms as an additional support to the organisations they aim to serve.
+Risorse is the crowdfunding tool of Fondazione Sviluppo e Crescita CRT which aims to support the growth of non-profit organisations in the region of Piedmont and Valle d’Aosta in Italy, and their related projects in the fields of art, culture, social innovation and welfare.
From 2017 to the present, 92% of the selected crowdfunding projects have been successful. More than 5,300 private donors have concretely supported the initiatives by investing a total of more than €400,000.