The boundary between housing and social assistance policies is increasingly blurred in modern welfare states, in particular since the rationing of the available resources has triggered a redefinition of the public intervention in the housing sector, leading to stronger targeting towards the most deprived situations. By analysing the evolution of the main scheme for tenants' support implemented by the Lombardy regional government (FSA, Rent Support Fund) as an instance of policy change, the article shows that the transformation from a measure aimed at meeting specific housing needs to a more general form of income support actually responds to the same policy paradigm.