Housing law: the government wants to tighten the screws for HLM tenants

The government wishes to lower the thresholds beyond which social housing tenants will see their rent increased or their lease terminated, AFP learned from sources who met Housing Minister Guillaume Kasbarian on Monday April 15, confirming information from Le Monde.

The minister, who repeats wanting to create a "supply shock" and better house the middle classes, presented on Monday the broad outlines of his future bill before the National Housing Council, which brings together many players in the world of housing. accommodation.

Among the avenues put forward, the lowering of the thresholds from which HLM tenants will be able to see their rent increased.

Currently, they must exceed the resource ceiling corresponding to their category of social housing by 20%.

The government's plan plans to remove this 20% margin and apply an "additional rent" as soon as income exceeds the ceiling.

It also aims to reduce the resource threshold that could trigger the eviction of a household from their social housing.

Today, this is only possible for tenants who exceed the highest HLM resource ceiling by 50% for two years in a row.

This threshold would drop to 20%, according to a provisional text obtained by AFP.

Social landlords could also end the lease if the tenants own housing that meets their needs or can provide them with sufficient resources to find accommodation in the private sector.

The draft text also specifies the sensitive reform, desired by Gabriel Attal, of the SRU law (Solidarity and urban renewal) on social housing quotas. The Prime Minister wanted to partly integrate intermediate housing, with resource ceilings and rents higher than in social housing.

According to the text consulted by AFP, municipalities less than 10 points behind their social housing objective (20 or 25% depending on the case) would be authorized to integrate up to a quarter of intermediate housing into the construction flow. used to catch up.

The bill should be presented to the Council of Ministers on May 7, according to several sources present at the meeting, for examination in the Senate in June.

Among the other proposed provisions is increased leeway for mayors to allocate social housing; or the increase in the share of intermediate housing that social landlords can hold.

The minister's office did not immediately respond to requests from AFP.