(Refiles, fixing typo in headline) President Sergio Mattarella stressed the need to address new forms of poverty his address to the assembly of Italian municipalities association ANCI on Wednesday.
"We are faced with unprecedented forms of hardship and new poverty, as well with more demanding issues, which we cannot overlook," the head of State said.
He referred to "areas that produce social exclusion, places of degradation and illegality, the abandonment of disused areas, the desertification...
of areas that were once inhabited".
He also said Italy was facing a housing "emergency" and, with the nation's population rapidly aging, he called for "policies to encourage new families, to foster young students, to include workers who arrive, who are otherwise marginalized and pushed into degradation".
