Paris City Hall wants to encourage the State to collaborate more to develop social housing

A few steps from the National Assembly, the Ilot-Saint-Germain, its crèche and its sports complex, set up in former offices of the Ministry of the Armed Forces, constitute "an exemplary operation of what we can do best when we can move forward hand in hand with the public authorities,” rejoiced Anne Hidalgo.

Proud to display a 25% rate of social housing, the socialist mayor even intends to push the State to move, in her words, "from procrastination to real action", at a time when more and more French people struggle to find housing, in particular because of restrictions on real estate loans.

The first tenants of Ilot-Saint-Germain are delighted to have been able to take up residence in the heart of the capital.

“It took me more than an hour to get to work, now it’s thirty minutes,” said Gakou, garbage collector at Paris town hall in the XNUMXrd arrondissement.

“I'll tell you cash, it's not a working-class neighborhood (...) I discovered home deliveries,” quips Fouad, an employee at the Ministry of the Armed Forces.

Currently, 700.000 of the 2,15 million Parisians (Insee figure for 2022) live in social housing and the municipality has 200.000 applicants.

“Very good result”

The Ilot-Saint-Germain site, a former Ministry of Defense building, was bought by the City at a ridiculous price for the Parisian market: 29 million euros for 11.000 m2 of living space, a discount of 57 million euros.

A good deal made possible by the “Duflot” discount, named after François Hollande, Minister of Housing, introduced in 2013, which allows the State to sell land or buildings at low prices to build housing.

“We have teamed up and we must continue to apply the discounts in a well-thought-out manner,” Ms. Hidalgo said on Thursday to the regional prefect Marc Guillaume.

“It is an example of time, investment and working hand in hand with a very good result,” recognized Mr. Guillaume, determined to continue on this path. “It interests us, we are working on it with them,” he told AFP.

The town hall is interested in three sites in the 350nd, XNUMXth and XNUMXth arrondissements, with a potential of XNUMX housing units.

Ms. Hidalgo called on the new Minister of Housing Patrice Vergriete, saying she was "up for supporting him" in these operations.

However, this collaboration is not self-evident.

On Wednesday, the first deputy of the Paris town hall Emmanuel Grégoire deplored to the press the "seized" relations of the town hall with the government, deploring that, since 2017, he "no longer wants to practice any reduction".

30% target

Fierce leader of the opposition to Anne Hidalgo, the mayor of the XNUMXth arrondissement Rachida Dati (LR) is not in favor. She believes that the importance of the cost, borne by the State, makes it “a model (which) is not duplicable and that is why such projects remain exceptional”.

Since 2008, the rate of social housing in the 1,2th arrondissement has increased from 3% to XNUMX%, a "figure (which) can be explained by the little land available (...) in an already very dense district, where "are the headquarters of many institutions", according to the former Minister of Justice.

His colleague Valérie Montandon (LR) does not wish to go beyond the 25% rate of social housing imposed by the SRU law (Solidarity and urban renewal) on municipalities with more than 15.000 inhabitants.

She believes that this figure ensures "a good balance" beyond which "we must stop producing it and sell part of the stock to develop intermediate housing".

As recalled by the PCF deputy in charge of housing, Ian Brossat (PCF), the municipality is aiming for a target of “30% social housing (...) by 2035”.

To achieve this, it intends to increase the land account budget to 2024 million euros in 300 – compared to 86 million in 2014 – allowing it to pre-empt buildings.

An “affordable housing fund” must also be created to “allow the middle classes to rent housing at -25% compared to market prices”, with a set objective of 320 rentals per year.