After a year 2022 marked by a record of unpaid rents due to inflation and the energy crisis, associations fear that spring will accentuate the "stigmatization of tenants"...France: Associations fear increase in evictions with the end of the winter break Social landlords have observed a sharp increase in unpaid bills in 2022 compared to the previous year. © AFP / GEOFFROY VAN DER HASSELT Text by: RFI Follow 4 mn After a year 2022 marked by a record of unpaid rents due to inflation and the energy crisis, the associations fear that the spring accentuates the "stigmatiza

France: Associations fear increase in evictions with the end of the winter break

Social landlords have observed a sharp increase in unpaid bills in 2022 compared to the previous year. © AFP / GEOFFROY VAN DER HASSELT

Text by: RFI Follow

4 mn

After a year 2022 marked by a record of unpaid rents due to inflation and the energy crisis, the associations fear that the spring accentuates the "stigmatization of tenants" and the most modest households.

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The winter truce ends this Friday, March 31 at midnight, which means that it will again be possible to evict tenants from their homes after five months of prohibition of this measure, with exceptions, imposed by law. The associations fear an increase in the evictions of tenants because of unpaid rents, inflation having undermined the budget of the most modest.

We are very worried because the social situation has deteriorated with the rise in energy and food prices in recent months, summarizes for RFI Manuel Domergue, director of studies at the Abbé Pierre Foundation. We know that it has a very strong impact, mainly on working-class households. This is already reflected in an increase in unpaid rent, for example in the HLM park. It turns out that with the end of the truce on evictions, households that had this sword of Damocles hanging over their heads are at risk of eviction in the coming months. And on the government side, we have the impression that the time is rather firm, not to say stigmatizing tenants.

While the truce period had been extended during the Covid crisis in 2020 and 2021 – significantly reducing the number of evictions to 8,100 in 2020 and 12,000 in 2021, compared to 16,700 in 2019 – associations now fear that the number of evictions will rise again, due to the "precariousness" of low-income households due to inflation. To counter this rise in prices, the Abbé Pierre Foundation has asked for a tripling of the energy check and an increase in APL to support the most modest.

A record of unpaid bills in 2022

Despite the tariff shield put in place to contain soaring prices, interventions for unpaid gas or electricity have broken a record during the year 2022. "Despite the tariff shield and the allocation of additional energy vouchers, the number of interventions for unpaid bills increased in 2022: 863,000 were implemented, an increase of 10% compared to 2021," announced the energy ombudsman on March 30. This is the highest level since the Ombudsman recorded these interventions in 2015.

But at the same time, and for the first time, a decrease in the number of unpaid households that suffered a power cut was also noted in 2022. The number of homes cut has been reduced to 157,000, against 254,000 in 2021, a decrease of 38% according to the mediator who specifies that the evolution is mainly due to "a few suppliers, including EDF".

Since April 1, 2022, the leading electricity supplier in France has chosen to no longer suspend the power supply in the event of unpaid bills from its customers, but to reduce their power to 1 kVA or 3 kVa, regardless of the time of year. Enough to light a light bulb, recharge your phone, keep food and medication in the refrigerator or take steps to regularize your situation. A "social advance" welcomed by the Abbé Pierre Foundation, which campaigns for a law on the total abolition of cuts in main residences.

Anti-squatter bill worries

This is not the only area of concern for associations. The potential effect of Macronist MP Guillaume Kasbarian's bill, currently being considered for second reading in the National Assembly, could make the situation even worse. It plans to toughen sanctions against squatters and speed up procedures in the event of unpaid rent.

A text deemed "cruel" and "of great social brutality" by Jean-Baptiste Eyraud, the spokesman for the association Droit au logement (DAL). "If it is adopted, it will weaken the prevention of evictions, the current mechanisms will no longer be able to work and things will go much faster," he told AFP. The association is organizing a rally on April 1 on the Place de la Bastille, in Paris, to denounce this text and defend more broadly the right to housing for all.

Relocating remains a headache for precarious households. According to a study by the Abbé Pierre Foundation of 66 evicted households, 32% of them had not found a fixed home one to three years after their eviction.

France: Associations fear increase in evictions with the end of the winter break

France: Associations fear increase in evictions with the end of the winter break

A record of unpaid bills in 2022

Anti-squatter bill worries

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