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In terms of housing systems, Italian cities belong to the so called “Southern-European model” which is marked by the primacy of home-ownership, a weak rate of tenancy and even more scarce presence of public housing. Since the financial and economic crisis of 2008, households are dealing with increasing economic distress rather than experiencing a wide housing crisis, as in the US or in global cities. The severe austerity agenda which is affecting Italy since the economic meltdown is mainly transforming the labour market and the public sector. Under such a scenario, this paper takes into account the multifaceted strategies emerging at a neighbourhood level, in quite an odd city if compared to other Italian contexts: Turin. The Turinese particularity is linked both to its urban history, for its industrial and then post-industrial path, to its weakly Mediterranean conditions, considering the below-average levels of informality and porosity. The working-class quarter of Aurora, in Northern Turin, interestingly shows a particular kind of reaction toward austerity, related to the new and controversial field of short-term rentals offered through online peer-to-peer platforms (e.g. Airbnb). Narratives and strategies elaborated to face the crisis by middle and lower-middle class individuals and households, using rent as income substitution, integration or investment in that area, are therefore the main source for this paper. The final remarks include discussion of the urban and social-justice implications.