Parliament definitively adopts a text to combat “degraded housing”

While nearly 1,5 million homes are degraded in France according to the executive, this bill will offer "pragmatic and operational measures to sustainably improve" the situation of "families who experience unacceptable living conditions", he said. is delighted the Minister for Housing, Guillaume Kasbarian.

After being adopted by the National Assembly, the government text received unanimous approval in the Senate on Wednesday, to conclude its parliamentary examination.

It provides for different mechanisms, in particular to facilitate the launch of work upstream in these fragile housing units, before definitive deterioration requires demolition.

It also creates a new procedure for the expropriation of housing affected by a danger or unsanitary order, as well as a collective global loan to improve access to credit for co-owners, accompanied by a "public guarantee".

The text also offers mayors the possibility of automatically carrying out a structural diagnosis of buildings in areas of degraded housing, including in old city centers.

“This text is eagerly awaited by elected officials who want to act as quickly as possible,” underlined centrist senator Amel Gacquerre, rapporteur on this text to the high assembly.

The bill, the first text defended in Parliament by Mr. Kasbarian, also contains a component of the fight against slumlords, strengthening criminal sanctions against these owners renting substandard accommodation.

But the minister has above all made an appointment for other, more anticipated deadlines in this housing sector, while many elected officials fear the explosion of a "social bomb".

“All these reasons for satisfaction do not eclipse going further to address the serious housing crisis,” pointed out Les Républicains senator Dominique Estrosi-Sassone.

“Faced with a worsening housing crisis, getting out of substandard housing means having a housing offer adapted to the incomes and needs of the French,” continued socialist Viviane Artigalas.

A larger and more sensitive bill will be examined in June in the Senate: already criticized on the left, it must notably review the Solidarity and Urban Renewal (SRU) law, which sets quotas for social housing in certain municipalities.