Diversity and public services, Borne presents new measures for working-class neighborhoods

Social diversity, employment, public services, ecological transition: at the end of the Interministerial Committee of Cities (CIV) held in Chanteloup-les-Vignes, a popular commune in Yvelines, the Prime Minister outlined four axes of the government's social action to resolve the difficulties of priority neighborhoods.

The day before, she had made a first series of announcements, rather security-related, four months after the wave of riots triggered by the death of young Nahel, killed by a police officer during a road check in Nanterre.

The elected officials of these neighborhoods, on the front line during the summer riots, impatiently awaited this committee, postponed several times.

They must negotiate with the State, by March 31, the framework of city policy on their territory until 2030.

In Chanteloup, where more than half of the inhabitants live in a priority district of the city policy (QPV), the Prime Minister has drawn up a shock measure: the instruction given to the prefects to no longer allocate housing to certain households benefiting of the right to housing enforceable in these neighborhoods, in the name of social diversity.

“All the difficulties should not be gathered in the same place. Diversity is an opportunity. It is necessary,” she insisted.

“Dalo” households, for “enforceable right to housing”, have a right to housing recognized by a mediation commission or the courts, and must be given priority in the allocation of social housing.

Nearly 35.000 obtained recognition of this right in 2022, and more than 93.000 remain awaiting rehousing despite this recognition, the vast majority in the Paris region.

Only the most precarious will be affected by the measure, the Ministry of Housing was told, and will be granted social housing outside QPV.

The prefects will also have to stop the creation of new emergency accommodation places, intended for homeless people, in these same neighborhoods.

The measure angered the left and within associations against poor housing.

“Punishing priority Dalo households because of the riots, what an abysmal contradiction!”, the director of studies of the Abbé Pierre Foundation, Manuel Domergue, raged on X (ex-Twitter). “This (illegal!) decision would block their access to a third of the HLM park,” he maintained.

“What would promote +social diversity+ would be for rogue mayors who refuse to respect the SRU law (establishing quotas for social housing per municipality, Editor’s note) to be severely sanctioned, and obliged to build them”, affirmed on the same network the LFI deputy François Piquemal.

“Testing” relaunched

Among the other measures announced by Matignon, an “Entrepreneurship Neighborhoods 2030” program, with 456 million euros over four years, aimed at encouraging the creation of businesses in QPVs.

To fight against discrimination in hiring, housing or access to bank loans, the government will also launch “massive testing operations from 2024”, announced the head of government.

“Testing” consists of sending CVs or files of people differentiated only by one point that may be subject to discrimination (skin color, foreign-sounding name, address, disability, etc.) to the same employer, lessor or banker.

Led by the interministerial delegation for the fight against racism (Dilcrah), this policy will “ultimately target 500 companies per year”, according to Matignon.

Education, a priority according to many elected officials to reduce inequalities between working-class neighborhoods and the rest of the territory, benefits from several measures: the extension of educational cities, where support for students is reinforced, and the guaranteed opening of middle schools from 8:00 a.m. to 18:00 p.m. from the start of the 2024 school year.

Libraries will also see their opening hours extended in 500 neighborhoods, promises Matignon.

And the geography of priority education, from which establishments benefit from more resources, will be gradually reformed to match exactly that of the QPVs.

The “Resilient Neighborhoods” program, aimed at greening city policy, will concern 24 additional neighborhoods, with 250 million euros allocated in this direction compared to 100 million previously.