Messina councilors challenge public housing residency scoring

City councilors in Messina, members of the ‘Scurria Sindaco per Messina Partecipazione’ group, have challenged the current scoring system for public housing (ERP) allocations. The group, including Marcello Scurria, Pippo Capurro, and Simona Contestabile, filed an immediate response inquiry regarding the weight given to years of residency in the municipality.

Under current regulations, applicants receive 0.50 points for every year of residency starting from the third year, with no maximum cap. Councilors argue this mechanism allows long-term residents to accumulate significant points—for example, 35 years of residency yields 16 points—which matches the maximum score possible for economic hardship in a family of four with an ISEE between zero and 3,000 euros.

The opposition claims this system violates Article 3 of the Italian Constitution regarding equality and reasonableness. They cite recent Constitutional Court rulings, specifically sentence number 1 of 2026, which suggest that residency criteria should not outweigh an individual's actual state of housing need.