HLM quotas: 64% of municipalities have not achieved their 2020-2022 objectives

Among the 659 out-of-the-way municipalities (out of 1.031 concerned) are almost all of the large cities, points out the Foundation, which relies on data reported to the national SRU commission.

The SRU law, for Solidarity and Urban Renewal, adopted in 2000 to promote social diversity, requires municipalities in urban areas to have a minimum rate of social housing, of 20 or 25% depending on the case.

Municipalities falling short of these quotas are assigned three-year production objectives to catch up. If they do not keep them, they may be declared deficient and have to pay a fine which will be used to finance social housing.

At the national level, all the municipalities concerned have only produced 67% of the social housing that they should have created to meet their objectives, deplores the Abbé Pierre Foundation.

This is much less than in the previous two periods, when this figure was above 100%.

The Foundation attributes this fall to several causes: the Covid-19 pandemic, the economic situation which has significantly slowed down construction, but also “a government policy that is very unfavorable to social housing”.

“The government is fully mobilized to ensure compliance with the law, in conjunction with communities,” the ministry responsible for Housing assured AFP. “We are working to encourage municipalities to sign social diversity contracts to meet the objectives, with almost a third of deficit municipalities who are interested.”

“The government is committed to a firm and pragmatic application of the SRU law, to allow social diversity,” the ministry added.

Bad students

Among the large cities, only Montpellier has achieved, and even largely exceeded, its objectives.

Paris has respected its quantitative production objective (114%), but remains out of line because it has resorted too much to "low social" housing, targeting less disadvantaged groups.

On the contrary, Nice and the upscale commune of Boulogne-Billancourt, southwest of Paris, are the worst performers of the big cities, having each built only 13% of the social housing assigned to them.

Toulon follows, with 19%, then Marseille (38%), Aix-en-Provence (47%), Perpignan (49%), Annecy (81%), Bordeaux (82%), Lyon (86%) and Saint- Paul from Reunion (89%).

The Foundation is also attacking several recalcitrant people, including chic towns in Île-de-France which display extremely low production figures.

This is the case of Neuilly-sur-Seine (1% of the objective), a "multiple offender" which has never been in the spotlight since the entry into force of the SRU law, according to the Foundation.

Rambouillet (2%), Maisons-Laffitte (8%), Vincennes (16%) or Saint-Maur-des-Fossés (18%) are also singled out.

Some municipalities have not produced any social housing in three years. Seven have even seen their number of social housing decrease, such as La Seyne-sur-Mer (Var) or Saint-Rémy-lès-Chevreuse (Yvelines).

Illustrative image of the article via Depositphotos.com.