It is a highly anticipated bill which will be presented this Friday by the government. While the housing sector is going through a historic crisis in France, its minister Guillaume Kasbarian intends to create the conditions for a “supply shock” to better house people. In short: facilitate construction in order to increase the number of available housing units, reduce tension and slow down the perpetual rise in rents which is strangling the French. The problem, in the eyes of defenders of social housing, is that the text also attacks the most vulnerable, by tightening certain rules for the allocation of low-income housing (HLM).
The problem is complex. With new construction at a standstill, France is hardly delivering new housing. Consequence: market prices are on the rise, faced with this imbalance of supply and demand. For many French people, purchasing has become impossible. Demand then becomes even stronger on the rental market, which is also saturated. At the very bottom of the scale, tension is intensifying on social housing. The number of households waiting for HLM is estimated at 2.6 million. To “relax” the situation, the government has decided to tighten certain award conditions. But this “This bill hunts the poor”, estimate the five main HLM tenant associations.
To leave… “But to go where? »
First targeted: tenants whose income exceeds the ceiling authorized for accommodation in HLM. With this bill, they will see their rent increased more often. Worse, they could more easily be expelled from the social sector beyond a certain threshold. According to the minister, 8% of people living in HLM would no longer be eligible due to their income being too high.
Leave, okay. “But to go where? », asks the general delegate of the Abbé-Pierre Foundation Christophe Robert. “These are still small resources for a household. And the steps between social housing and private housing, in certain areas, they are very, very high! “. By forcing these middle classes to leave, the government is also taking the risk of reducing social diversity and causing impoverishment of low-rent buildings.
But there is something even more worrying, according to the associations. By giving greater decision-making power to mayors in the allocation of social housing, the associations fear that “electoral patronage” will take place “or even a national preference”, which can be feared in certain territories.
The SRU law will be relaxed
The problem in the social housing sector also seems to be enforcing the SRU or “Solidarity and Urban Renewal” law, which provides in particular for sanctions against cities that do not respect the minimum of 20% of social housing in their stock. “Fines don’t work,” assures MP Bastien Marchive. The majority’s solution? Make the text more flexible to encourage the least virtuous municipalities to invest in intermediate housing.
“Why want to weaken the SRU law, give a bonus to those who have not applied it sufficiently for 20, 25 years, while others have stuck to it? », questions Christophe Robert. The bill is expected to be considered in June in the Senate.