The homeless and public space: urban policy and exclusion in Bologna

This article addresses the relationship between homeless people and urban public space. The analysis, focusing on the Italian context and, in particular, on the city of Bologna, centres on urban policy strategies which tend to exclude the homeless from public spaces and to regulate their use of such spaces. Our considerations encompass three dimensions: the role of public space in the daily life of the homeless; the changes in public space following urban renewal processes; public space control mechanisms, in the form of urban design and local by-laws, which translate into a spatial exclusion of the homeless.