Housing: the SRU law, stop or still?

Faced with the scale of the housing crisis, the Prime Minister declared to MPs on Tuesday that he would continue to "support" the world of social housing, but that it had to "evolve".

Among other changes, he wants to propose "adding in part intermediate housing (LLI, with regulated rents but higher than in HLM, editor's note), accessible to the middle class" in the calculation of the quota that municipalities subject to the SRU law must be respected.

Adopted in 2000 to promote the construction of social housing and social diversity, this law requires municipalities with more than 3.500 inhabitants in urban areas (1.500 in the Paris metropolitan area) to have, by 2025, 20% or 25% of social rental housing throughout their main residence stock.

Municipalities which do not respect these quotas must meet three-year production objectives to catch up, and pay a fine which will be used to finance social housing if they do not meet them.

“Putting intermediate housing against social housing is counterproductive: the majority of people who go to intermediate housing are also eligible for social housing,” justified the Minister of Ecological Transition Christophe Béchu during his wishes on Wednesday evening.

“The effect of what has been announced is to ease the pressure on social welfare for the most modest,” he added.

"Segregation"

But Gabriel Attal's announcement stunned the world of social housing and certain local elected officials.

“This proposal, which will in no way resolve the delay in the construction of social housing, will reinforce territorial segregation by weakening compliance with the SRU law,” criticized the Social Union for Housing (USH), which represents social landlords.

“Only 3%” of the 2,6 million households waiting for social housing are eligible, in terms of income, for intermediate housing, underlines the USH.

“A nurse in Paris will not be able to find accommodation there,” notes its president, Emmanuelle Cosse, recalling that there is “no control over time of resources, nor any obligation for landlords to accommodate +priority+ public".

The LLI ceilings in Bordeaux thus rise to 90.070 euros for a couple with two children, or 7.500 euros of monthly income.

Far too much for Thierry Repentin, the DVG mayor of Chambéry (Savoie) and former president of the national SRU commission.

“There has never been so little social housing built in France since 2005,” he recalls, judging that the measure announced by Gabriel Attal would lead to even “less social housing”.

It also gives a bonus to mayors who “preferred to play segregation”.

“Major renunciation”

In a letter addressed to the Prime Minister, the mayors of around fifteen large cities including Paris, Lille, Lyon, Bordeaux, Rennes, Strasbourg and Poitiers expressed their "very strong concern" on Wednesday.

They denounce a "major renunciation of the policy of producing social housing" and believe that including intermediate housing in the SRU count would be "a major political error".

A report from the Abbé Pierre Foundation published in December shows that almost two thirds (64%) of the municipalities affected by the SRU law have not respected their objectives over the 2020-2022 period.

The cause, according to the Foundation, is the Covid-19 pandemic, the economic situation but also “a government policy that is very unfavorable to social housing”.

“Does (this measure) mean that intermediate housing would be considered social housing with an agreement and allocation commissions?” asks the general director of the Association of Mayors of France (AMF) , Eric Verlhac.

The announcement by the head of government also rekindles the debate on the results of the SRU law. “This law has clearly made it possible to have social housing in areas where there was none,” assures Gilles Leproust, president of the Ville & Banlieue association.

According to the assessment drawn up in 2020 by the Idheal research institute, HLMs are “increasingly mixed with other housing” and “better distributed across the territory” since the implementation of the law, but “enclaves of poverty are more numerous and poorer.