- The poorest are hampered in their access to the social park, in particular because of the insufficiency of their resources, because the social landlords fear unpaid rents.
- The volume of the HLM park supply is also at issue, especially in the most tense territories.
Logically, the poorest French people should be the first to benefit from social housing. But the reality is quite different. If nearly one in two applicants for social housing is below the poverty line (one million people), it is clear that obtaining the keys to an HLM is an obstacle course. Because a person who touches the social minima has 30% less chance of finding social housing than a person touching the minimum wage, underlines a report * of six charities published this Thursday.
And in a tense area, the chances of a precarious person are even more reduced. Because if the poor represent 41% of the applicants for social housing, they are only the beneficiaries of 35% of the allocations. And the lack of mobility in these homes is even greater than in areas without stress on the home. Suddenly, “tens of thousands” of households are waiting due to “lack of financially accessible social housing”, finding themselves housed with third parties, by sleep merchants, in social hotels or in slums.
Avoid the risk of rent arrears
"Social housing is efficient enough to accommodate the working class with low incomes around the minimum wage, but the poorest who receive social minima, such as the RSA, are not given priority in the allocation of low-cost housing," says Manuel. Domergue, director of studies for the Abbé-Pierre Foundation.
This situation is explained by the filtering by the social landlords and the social housing allocation commissions of the most precarious files. The insufficiency of their resources raises fears of unpaid rents. “The poorest have unstable resources. Either because they have precarious contracts, or because their social benefits are fluctuating, or because their resources depend on the renewal of their papers, ”explains Pauline Portefaix, researcher and coordinator of the study.
Boosting HLM constructions, an imperative
But it is also the inventory of the social park which explains this loss of chance for the most precarious. Firstly, because there is not enough social housing there. "It would be necessary to go to 60,000 constructions per year of PLAI housing (allocated to tenants in very precarious situations) instead of 40,000 to be able to meet needs", believes Bernard Devert,founding president of Habitat et Humanisme. "And some poor families are numerous and require large housing which is scarce," also notes Pauline Portefaix.
To reverse the steam, the solutions are however there. "We must first revalue the APL (personal housing aid) because they are the means to make the most precarious," insists Véronique Fayet, president of Secours Catholique. Especially since in recent years, the APL have suffered a cut of 5 euros, successive freezes ... And they do not cover all the costs of housing.
And if we adapt the rents to the incomes?
Another ambitious suggestion to ensure that HLM rents are not too high for the poorest: "Adapt the rent to household resources. And make compensate the rest by the State or the local communities ”, continues Véronique Fayet. To ensure that the most precarious are considered as priority, it is also necessary to apply more the legal obligations to allocate part of the social housing to these people, believes Bernard Lacharme, president of the Dalo Association: "We must notably ask that the prefects explain themselves to the Minister of Housing when this priority is not respected ”.
And the economic crisis that is looming sounds the urgency to move forward on this issue: “The fall in income of the most precarious is likely to increase, and with it their difficulty in finding housing. Only a collective effort by social landlords, local elected officials and the government to strengthen the social vocation of this park will be able to change the situation ”, concludes Baudouin de Pontcharra, president of Solidarités Nouvelles pour le Logement.
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* "The poorer we are, the less chance we have of obtaining social housing!" ", Interassociative report in which participatedHabitat et Humanisme, Secours Catholique-Caritas France, the Abbé-Pierre Foundation, ATD Fourth World, Solidarités Nouvelles pour le Logement and the DALO Association.
- Poverty
- Crisis
- Housing
- Society
- Social housing