[situationista]

The services in question are provided by the local municipality - and they don’t receive extra government funding for this. So unlike a regular citizen who registers on a real street, from whom the city typically collects taxes, a homeless citizen brings costs without bringing many “benefits” (from a purely economic perspective).

As for why they mandate the creation of these fictitious streets, it’s because Italy’s administrative system is obsessed with linking people to an address in a way that is absolutely alien to many foreigners. When you change address the police literally come round to check you actually live there…

[pulisse]

Italy's not unique in that respect, in Europe at least. You can't do much in Germany without a Meldebescheingung.

[immibis]

But in Germany you need an actual address. If you are homeless, you almost legally don't exist. You are prohibited from opening a bank account, for example, or having a job, because you do not exist.

[echoangle]

You’re wrong, you have a legal right to a bank account (Basiskonto) if you live in the EU, even if you don’t have a fixed address. The bank literally can’t deny you ( https://www.bafin.de/DE/Verbraucher/Bank/Produkte/Basiskonto... ). You need to give them an address to send mail to, but that can be any address where you can get access to the mail (friends, family, homeless shelter…). Do you have a source for the claim?

[riffraff]

in Hungary you also can't do anything with a lakcimkartya (=~ address card). The only difference with Italy is that it's a separate document from the ID card.