Rental intermediation: ultra-social housing facing a shortage of supply

In Cergy (Val-d'Oise), the social real estate agency Soliha Île-de-France "takes care of the rent and lets me pay a contribution of a little over 300 euros, or 25% of the rent, for a 50 m2 apartment", Zulu Nata Kuetuka happily told AFP.

In his bedroom, a makeshift bed is made of three stacked mattresses, as a reminder of a precarious financial situation.

Residence permit, dismissal, divorce... This 43-year-old mother from the Democratic Republic of Congo, who is facing numerous difficulties, is trying to balance job searching and caring for two young children.

Fortunately, Zulu Nata Kuetuka is relieved of the burden of paying rent to the landlord and maintaining the accommodation, which are handled by Soliha. She benefits from the rental intermediation (IML) system, initially for a period of 18 months, but renewed for several years in her case.

"Thanks to the fixed accommodation I was allocated, I was able to do my training in peace and develop professional skills. It's essential for living serenely," she confides.

"A choice based on solidarity"

Other low-income individuals are offered a different form of rental intermediation, planned over three years: the management mandate.

Here, the social third party serves as a simple "interlocutor between the landlord and the tenant", explains Natalia Gaire, director of Soliha IDF, to AFP.

A more direct stepping stone to traditional social housing, this scheme offers a payment guarantee for the owner but requires an additional financial effort from the household concerned.

"I pay the entire rent, between 600 and 700 euros" per month, says Pamela Yebi Kono in her 45 m2 apartment located in a quiet neighborhood near a park in Orly (Val-de-Marne). A source of pride for this unemployed woman in her thirties who has been living there with her two sons for a year and a half, and who aspires to create her own private hire car business.

"We do not place families in a hotel, nor in a social reintegration and accommodation center. The households are in a home and gain autonomy," says the manager, Natalia Gaire.

According to her, the IML fits perfectly into the government's "Housing First" strategy, which aims to move "from the street to tenant status".

Attracting landlords to this scheme is not easy, however. "Taking the risk of holding a lease" with a vulnerable tenant population worries many landlords, acknowledges Natalia Gaire.

Stéphanie Gosso nevertheless opted for this "solidarity choice" by buying in 2020 a property that was already under IML, in Choisy-le-Roi (Val-de-Marne).

"In case of neighborhood problems or work on the sanitary facilities," the intermediary takes over, she says.

Like most homeowners, she admits to having also been reassured by tax advantages. "In my case, I don't pay taxes," she acknowledges.

Offer reduced

Social "third parties" - operators, approved bodies or associations - rely on incentive measures such as bonuses or subsidies for energy work paid by the State.

Public authorities finance "more than 90.000 places in rental intermediation, equivalent to the population of the city of Poitiers, compared to less than 30.000 a decade earlier", notes the High Committee for the Right to Housing in a study published last November.

But the IML, intended to alleviate the congestion of waiting lists for housing in the traditional social housing sector, is struggling to renew its supply.

The annual number of new subsidized housing units fell from 16.267 in 2008 to just 7.481 in 2023. This decline is "progressively restricting the volume of housing units that can be mobilized," the High Committee is concerned.

The government institution has formulated several proposals to halt this decline, including placing the scheme "at the heart of the future reform of the status of private landlords".

For Natalia Gaire, the main need is to streamline "interactions" between social operators and communities, so that collective intermediation benefits from broad and positive communication.