An extra 1,000 beds all year, apart from those already set up for winter.

After a one-year experiment, Milan city hall has confirmed the establishment of a permanent system of services for people living on the streets.

Guidelines are now in place to select volunteer organisations and non-profits to co-design and co-manage reception services. With a total planned expenditure of over €5.3m for the two-year period October 2019 - December 2021, the city provides – every day and throughout the year – over a thousand places in Milanese structures, with different types of reception solutions. This is in addition to the winter cold emergency period, when the original 2,700 places will still be available.

Tutors will be provided to follow the homeless in their search for a roof and a bed and for job reintegration.

Some 350 places will be available in larger residential facilities where guests can, apart from finding accommodation, be accompanied and oriented towards services and care assistance.

All guests will be involved in a personalised social reinclusion project, and incentives will encourage managers of the structures to promote autonomy and help the guests find their way in the city life.

"Since 2011, when the dormitory on Viale Ortles was the only residential possibility, the reception system for the homeless has consolidated and has more than tripled the places available,” councillor Gabriele Rabaiotti told media. In addition to boosting the quality of reception, Rabaiotti continued, some €4m are now available for project management. “We will continue in this direction, so that no one in Milan should be forced to live on the streets,” he declared.

In addition to the housing solutions, there are several other services dedicated to the homeless .Since 2018 the emergency number 02 8844 7646 has been active 24 hours a day for citizens to report homeless people in fragile conditions. The service activates mobile units that reach the person on site and offers 10 beds for those who accept a place for the night.

City hall is also affiliated with 10 day care centres so that the homeless can have a place to eat and use the toilets and showers. The central station help centre is also active in Via Sammartini 120.

Finally, five offices are active in the city for the so-called "fictitious residence", which guarantee those who live on the streets the right to a registered residence, indispensable for requesting an identity card or accessing the national health service.