Demand for social housing is increasing in rural communities

In Loire-Atlantique, for example, there are "almost no mayors left who don't want social housing" in both urban and rural areas, estimates Michel Ménard, president of the departmental council of this territory, interviewed by AFP on the sidelines of the HLM congress which ends this Thursday in Paris.

Rural mayors, however, have no obligation to build social housing, unlike municipalities with more than 3.500 inhabitants in urban areas.

According to data from the Social Housing Union, which brings together social landlords, the ratio between social housing applicants and residents is particularly high in certain large cities or highly sought-after border or coastal areas, where prices are skyrocketing.

But the tension is just as strong in other smaller communities, as is the case in the communities of communes around Bonneville (Haute-Savoie), La Londe-des-Maures (Var) or even in Miribel, near Lyon, where requests for social housing represent more than 16% of the number of inhabitants.

"Elected officials in rural areas face the same problems as those in high-demand areas and metropolitan areas," observes Michel Gontard, president of the Grand Delta Habitat social housing cooperative, but the situations vary depending on the municipality and the causes of the housing shortage.

"Gentrification" of the rural areas

Bertrand Serp, Toulouse city councilor responsible for housing and also president of the city's social landlord, noted to AFP that "gentrification is also taking place in rural communities, with the arrival of residents from large cities who are moving to rural areas because they can no longer afford to live in the city."

This observation prompted Toulouse Métropole Habitat to create 34 housing units by renovating a farmhouse in a commune in the second ring of Toulouse, Labarthe-sur-Lèze (6.500 inhabitants), where "locals have difficulty finding accommodation," reports Bertrand Serp.

However, this type of operation, which amounts to millions of euros for only a handful of housing units, does not attract all social landlords.

"Average household incomes are often below national averages, so we can't set prohibitive rents," assures Sébastien Gouttebel, mayor of Murol (Puy-de-Dôme) and urban planning officer for the Association of Rural Mayors of France (AMRF). Getting these projects off the ground costs at least €5.000, or even €20.000 more, according to Michel Gontard's experience.

"Sometimes social landlords redirect municipalities to us," says Anne Nissole, director of Soliha Seine-et-Marne, the Paris region branch of a federation of housing and integration assistance associations.

In this department, Soliha has notably rehabilitated an old municipal building to create three dwellings for very low-income households.

One of the residents, who did not wish to be identified, moved in in 2023 after nearly five years of waiting for social housing adapted to his disability. "All they offered me were ground-floor apartments at the foot of the towers; I didn't want to live there," he told AFP.

"It was impossible" for him to "move out of social housing." "I hadn't worked since my disability, so I had direct refusals" from private rental landlords, he explains.

The benefits are threefold in this type of project: low-rent housing is created, the town gains new residents and an old building, often empty, finds a new use.

"Catching a social landlord in a rural area remains very, very complicated," laments Sébastien Gouttebel, calling for a "rural ANRU," that is, a plan and resources to develop rural areas and rehabilitate buildings.