This paper aims at showing the mobilization of local authorities to propose experimental solutions for housing Roma people. In presenting different types of housing conditions of the Roma in the city of Florence since the 1990s, it raises the issue of the challenge facing public-sector institutions in the changed context of the 2000s, where new migrational movements and xenophobic national policies question these experimental actions. The diverse solutions adopted by local authorities towards Roma originated from the Balkans’- alternatives to the camps, integration into public-sector housing, new “villages”, Progetto Rom Toscana - contrasts with the hostility emerging towards migrants from Romania. The paper underlines the risks and the capacity of local public action to integrate marginalised populations.