Faced with a housing crisis that is exploding in their faces, mayors are demanding solutions

"The housing crisis affects all segments" and this is blocking "residential pathways", warned the mayor of Chambéry Thierry Repentin on Wednesday at the Congress of Mayors, organized by the Association of Mayors of France (AMF), of which he co-chairs the Housing-Habitat-Accommodation working group.

"A major issue" for city officials, housing is currently experiencing a serious crisis, both in the stock of social housing, which is undersized to meet the millions of requests, and in the private rental market or to allow households to access property ownership.

The stakes are high because housing problems are the "breeding ground for very strong local anger" according to Charlotte Libert, co-president of the Housing-Habitat-Accommodation working group and mayor of Vincennes.

"I am confronted with increasingly frequent acts of violence," says Norbert Samama, mayor of Pouliguen, a seaside resort in Loire-Atlantique located south of Guérande.

"There are individuals who have torn up and thrown their voter cards at me, telling me 'I'm leaving because there's no housing in the town'. I'm in a situation of social crisis, of a social bomb," he warns, helpless in the face of "young workers who sleep in their cars."

"The first issue that explodes in the faces of elected officials is housing," in mainland France and overseas, confirms Valérie Létard, the Minister of Housing and Urban Renewal.

"Today, when you enter social housing, you never leave," reports Serge Hoareau, mayor of Petite-Ile, a commune in Réunion.

On its territory, "the housing problem is exacerbated because on an island, if we do not find accommodation in Reunion, we cannot move to the neighboring department" and, moreover, "private landlords prefer to do seasonal rentals."

Another overseas commune, Fort-de-France, the capital of Martinique, suffers from a "total inadequacy of housing to reality, particularly for the elderly and young people", and from a "major vacancy" of housing in certain districts, according to its mayor Didier Laguerre.

"Unfreezing" the sector

To better meet the needs of their constituents, city officials want "tools to organize residential routes" and adapt them to their territories and "more flexibility and agility".

Thierry Repentin also wants "tools to manage land" and proposes to be able to "regulate land prices to produce housing". He is asking for solutions to "put the 10% of vacant housing back on the market".

Faced with a housing crisis that she considers "massive", Valérie Létard calls on elected officials to work "hand in hand" to "co-construct" solutions with parliamentarians.

She recalls the "concrete measures to unblock" the sector and help create housing, currently under discussion with parliamentarians: generalization of zero-rate loans, reduction of a State levy on the income of social landlords and a bill on the transformation of vacant offices into housing, as well as an amendment to encourage family donations with a view to purchasing a main residence.

"Small things that loosen the links, but that will not be enough to reach the ambition of 450.000 new homes per year", estimates Thierry Repentin, who wants to "regain a dynamic of construction of new homes".

Other longer-term "projects" are on the minister's table: the "status of private lessors", the "simplification of procedures in terms of town planning and housing", and support for social landlords.

Regarding private lessors, Valérie Létard is considering measures to "ensure that investment in property is not confiscatory", and on "how to give private investors some breathing space without going overboard".

Illustrative image of the article via Depositphotos.com.