First published May 28, 2022.
In spring 2022 Italy announced that it would use homes confiscated from organised crime to shelter people fleeing the war in Ukraine. Interior Minister Luciana Lamorgese first described the plan in March, when 283 properties had been identified for long-term accommodation. By late May the pool had grown to more than 600 apartments, villas, houses and hotels once owned by mafia groups, and the first families had begun moving in.
The idea drew attention well beyond Italy because it joined two stories: Europe's largest refugee movement in decades and Italy's long effort to turn criminal wealth into public good. Here is how the scheme worked, where the buildings came from and what the headline figures did and did not mean.
The numbers in 2022
Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine began on 24 February 2022. On 4 March the European Union activated its Temporary Protection Directive for the first time, giving Ukrainians the right to live, work and access services in any member state, initially for a year and extendable up to three.
Italy, home to one of the largest Ukrainian communities in Western Europe, saw arrivals climb quickly. About 28,000 had arrived by mid-March. By 22 May, when The Local reported on the property plan, more than 118,000 had come, and official tallies passed 137,000 by late June. Most crossed overland via the border with Slovenia.
Lamorgese said the initiative would "guarantee hospitality to refugees leaving a theatre of war". Alongside housing, refugees under temporary protection were entitled to healthcare, schooling for children and permission to work.
Where the properties came from
Italy has spent decades building legal tools to strip criminal organisations of their assets. Seized property is managed by the National Agency for the Administration of Assets Confiscated from Organised Crime, known by its Italian initials ANBSC. In 2022 it had more than 40,000 properties on its books, and roughly a third of all confiscated assets were in Sicily. In 2021 alone, authorities seized assets worth about €1.9 billion from crime groups.
The principle that such assets should go back to the community comes largely from civil society. The anti-mafia network Libera, founded in 1995 by the priest Luigi Ciotti, collected a million signatures for a law on social reuse of confiscated goods. It was passed in March 1996 and is known as Law 109/1996. Since then, former mafia villas and farmland have been turned into community spaces and cooperatives; Libera's own cooperatives sell food from confiscated land under the Libera Terra label.
Housing Ukrainian refugees was a new use of this system, applied at speed during an emergency.
The first family to move in
One of the first properties to be used was a house in Rescaldina, a town of about 14,000 people near Milan, formerly owned by members of the 'Ndrangheta, the Calabrian mafia. Following an Interior Ministry decision, it was assigned to a Ukrainian woman named Tetiana, her children and her mother. Her husband had stayed in Ukraine to fight.
The town's mayor, Gilles Andrè Ielo, told Euronews that living in a real home rather than a crowded reception centre changed things for the family: a proper house "made them feel much calmer". ANBSC director Bruno Corda said that returning such a property to the community sends "a very strong message" to organised crime.
What "600 properties" did and did not mean
The 600-plus figure described properties identified as potentially available, not homes already occupied. The Local noted that only some refugees would be housed this way and that more buildings would be released once judged habitable. That caution matters. Confiscated buildings are often empty for years while legal proceedings run their course; some need repairs, connection to utilities or furniture, and a property in a remote village may be far from schools, jobs and the Ukrainian communities that newcomers relied on.
Refugees also tended to settle near family and friends. Most went to Lombardy, Lazio, Campania and Emilia-Romagna, and especially to Milan, Rome, Naples and Bologna, while the largest share of confiscated property lies in Sicily. Public sources we could find did not give a final count of how many Ukrainians eventually lived in seized properties, so the scheme is best understood as one useful strand in a wider response that also relied heavily on family networks, host households and reception centres.
Why the idea resonated
For Italians, the reuse of mafia assets is a symbol as much as a housing policy. Every former boss's villa that becomes a school or a shelter is a public sign that crime does not keep its spoils. Applying that to refugees from a war gave the gesture an extra layer of meaning: property gained through violence and intimidation was offered to people escaping violence.
The scheme also offered lessons for other countries holding confiscated real estate. Assets that sit idle cost money to secure and maintain; putting them to social use can ease pressure on local housing at the same time. The practical challenge, as Italy found, is speed: buildings are only useful in an emergency if they are legally cleared, safe and close to the services people need.
Key facts at a glance
- Announced: March 2022 by Interior Minister Luciana Lamorgese, with 283 properties identified at first.
- Scale by May 2022: more than 600 confiscated properties identified, including apartments, villas and hotels.
- Managing body: ANBSC, responsible for over 40,000 confiscated properties.
- Legal roots: Law 109/1996 on the social reuse of confiscated assets, promoted by Libera.
- Refugee arrivals in Italy: over 118,000 by late May and more than 137,000 by late June 2022.
Sources: The Local Italy, 22 May 2022; Rubryka, 11 March 2022; Euronews, 1 July 2022; Wikipedia: Libera; Wikipedia: Ukrainian refugee crisis.
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