Question 2568 — housing
France · National Assembly · 3 December 2024
Mrs. Sophie Delorme Duret draws the attention of the Minister of Housing and Urban Renewal to the importance of resuming the parliamentary examination of the bill relating to the development of the supply of affordable housing, initiated in the Senate. It recalls the structural difficulties in terms of housing in cross-border territories and more particularly those of the Pays de Gex, an area experiencing very strong demographic growth. It is a place where the scarcity of housing and the high cost of rents cause unfair and even grotesque situations where local workers, “workers in euros”, are forced to settle further and further away; where seasonal workers are unable to find accommodation near their workplaces; or employees refuse job offers despite attractive salaries, when other employees are forced to sleep in their vehicle with their family, failure to find affordable housing. These problems result in significant recruitment difficulties, weakening the economic situation of many companies. In addition, they prohibit the installation of health professionals and prevent the proper functioning of public services. Questioned by the mayor of Divonne-les-Bains, she cites the example of the sudden closure, for economic reasons, of a supermarket adjacent to an eco-district project of 380 housing units, almost 40% of which is social housing. The latter was essential to the economic profitability of this company in the long term and for welcoming new workers to keep public services and local businesses running. This project is contested by a local association which has used all legal remedies and artifices to block this project for 8 years. Local elected officials found completely helpless against this fierce will of a few citizens who fight against the common interest. Today, because of their delaying actions, several employees find themselves in a precarious situation and residents are deprived of a local service. She recalls that the bill mentioned above and whose examination was stopped abruptly following the dissolution, precisely contained provisions aimed at combating abusive recourse against housing or commercial projects. It also specifies that this same bill contains in its article 10 provisions allowing prefects to delegate all or part of the prefectural social housing contingents available to them to intermediary landlords to prioritize employees, particularly public employees. So she asks him when Does the Government intend to put this bill back on the parliamentary agenda?