Question 1349 — housing

Summary

Ms. Muriel Ressiguier questions the Minister of Territorial Cohesion on the housing plan which has just been unveiled this Wednesday in the Council of Ministers and draws his attention to the disastrous consequences of the implementation of the measures declined by the Government. In terms of observations, the current situation is catastrophic. For the Abbé Pierre Foundation, there are 4 million people who are poorly housed and 12 million who are weakened in their relationship to housing. In its latest report, the foundation highlights the entrenchment of poor housing, the creation of new inequalities and the dropout of the working classes. Indeed, the difficulties encountered are increasing: insufficiency and unsuitability of the supply, increase in the cost of housing, obsolescence of certain fractions of the real estate stock, etc. This state of affairs has persisted for too many years. THE The figures are frightening: a 50% increase in the number of homeless people between 2001 and 2012, a 19% increase in accommodation with a third party for the period 2002-2013, a 72% increase in households experiencing cold between 1996 and 2013, a 21% increase in court summons for unpaid debts between 2006 and 2015, a 12% increase in the number of people waiting for a HLM between 2006 and 2013 or 33% of evictions between 2006 and 2015. If previous governments had set noticeably high targets in the construction of social housing, they have not kept their promises. A radical change in housing policy that is socially and ecologically responsible, both in terms of construction and rehabilitation, is essential to ensure a real right to housing for all and address the emergency. Access to housing, just like access to work, education or health, contributes to the dignity of people that a country as rich as ours has the duty to ensure and guarantee. In his new housing plan, the minister announces "for reasons of economy" to confine the construction of 40,000 new "very social" housing units per year to replace hotel nights in emergency accommodation with hotel nights. This is largely insufficient when reading the figures stated above and the MP reminds him that he There may be savings to be made on this subject in a large developed country like France. However, according to the Abbé Pierre Foundation, at least 150,000 social housing units should be built per year, and more if we take into consideration changes in the economy and demographics. In addition, as the minister must know, the development of social housing impacts the entire real estate market, automatically leading to a decline general rule of rents and purchase prices. Today the level of rents remains high compared to the level of salaries and we must understand that this state of affairs fuels the dramatic situations that we want to see disappear. The solidarity and urban renewal law (SRU) requires, until now, local authorities to produce and reserve 20% to 25% for social housing in their territories, under penalty of financial sanctions or the direct production of building permits by prefectural decree. The Government declares that it wants to relax these quotas and grant privileges to lagging municipalities which have not yet fulfilled their obligations. The modification of article 55 of the SRU law goes against undeniable needs and will slow down the development of public social housing. A certain number of communities will continue to drag your feet or pay financial penalties. These arrangements cannot be accepted. In France, one in seven people lives below the poverty line. In the former Languedoc-Roussillon, it is even one household in five and the precariousness is such that 70% of the population is eligible for social housing. We do not have the luxury of allowing the selfishness or ghettoization of some who wish to remain "in the middle" to continue. self” and by some city councilors recalcitrant to the application of the law. This summer 2017, the Government made the choice to begin to place the burden of budgetary austerity on the shoulders of the most modest. It announced a reduction of 5 euros on APL for all of its beneficiaries, from October 1, 2017, affecting their already weak purchasing power. The incomprehension and the discomfort came because in the same At the time, the Prime Minister announced the reform of the ISF or the establishment of a flat tax in order to return 3 billion euros to the wealthiest. For the 2018 budget, a reduction that the minister himself estimates at 1.2 billion is planned for the APL. To do this, it plans to change the method of calculating rights to APL benefits, to ask social housing, including HLM, to lower its rents, so that housing assistance is lesser. The Government then mentions several avenues such as the instantaneousness of the taking into account of income, the modification of the modalities of allocation of the aid or the integration into the resources for the calculation of the rents of the aid received elsewhere. Considering that we are distributing aid to those who need it, why is there such a need to insist on changing the rules of the game? We all know that if the goal is to reduce the number of beneficiaries or the amounts of aid, this will in no way make precariousness and poverty disappear. There is also concern about the creation of a new “mobility lease” with a shorter duration. If today, the duration of rental leases (on unfurnished properties) is set at 3 years, the minister wishes to correlate this with the lifespan of employment contracts. This choice of the Government is explosive socially because it adds to job insecurity and housing insecurity. Finally, the announcements do not only concern social housing. This housing plan will favor private real estate developers responding to one of their old demands: reducing and eliminating urban planning regulations such as those aimed at improving accessibility for people with disabilities and the requirement for standards environmental and social. By choosing to hasten, it takes responsibility for the development of energy poverty, the destruction of the environment, all-out concreting and the endangerment of future occupants who would be in contact with dangerous construction materials harmful to health. This is why, after having questioned him, she questions him in order to find out what the Government is considering. to respond to the real need for development of public housing stock which preserves social diversity, to fight against slumlords and speculation linked to real estate, as well as on the question of requisitioning vacant housing.

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