Lack of access to social housing for the most vulnerable: eight prefects taken to court

"Since 2017, there has been an obligation for social housing to dedicate 25% of its allocations outside priority city neighborhoods (QPV) to the 25% of households with the lowest incomes. (...) However, we see every year that it is around 13 or 14%," lamented Éric Constantin, director of the Île-de-France regional agency of the Fondation pour le Logement des Déprivisés (formerly the Abbé Pierre Foundation), during a press briefing.

It joined forces with the Federation of Solidarity Actors in Île-de-France and Secours Catholique to take this legal action.

In 2024, households with resources of less than 12.000 euros per year or those rehoused as part of an urban renewal operation or the requalification of degraded co-ownerships only benefited from 14,4% of social housing allocations in Île-de-France, according to official data from the Regional and Interdepartmental Directorate of Accommodation and Housing.

Disparities between departments ranged from 11,7% in Hauts-de-Seine to 18,6% in Seine-Saint-Denis.

"In concrete terms, today, the poorest households do not have access to social housing, even though it is the only solution for them to find accommodation," summarizes Catherine Gaudry, vice-president of Secours Catholique and president of the Val-de-Marne delegation.

However, French law "provides that if this 25% target is not reached, the prefect must automatically allocate to households in the first quantile all housing units that become available outside of QPV, in order to reach at least this 25% floor," explains Caroline Gérard, who represents the associations in their legal proceedings.

The associations have therefore decided to take legal action "to force the eight prefects of the Ile-de-France region to respect the law and the right to housing," by using their power to allocate free social housing, they declared in a joint press release.

"The applicant organizations have contacted the prefects on several occasions. And it is because these contacts have not borne fruit that they have decided to initiate litigation," insists Caroline Gérard.