Social housing: the city of Marseille under the threat of a deficiency procedure

"By comparison (...) to the objectives of achievement of your municipality, I conclude that at least one of the three-year objectives set for this period has not been respected", writes the prefect Christophe Mirmand in this letter dated March 13 and consulted by AFP.

Over the period 2020-2022, according to the prefectural report, the municipality has only achieved 38,2% of its objective, which was the construction of 7.674 social rental housing units in a city where more than 40.000 requests for this type of housing are on hold.

In its letter, the prefecture specified that the town hall had two months to respond and in particular "specify the actions implemented (...) over this period, the reasons which led to the non-respect of all the catch-up objectives, the nature of the difficulties encountered".

The final decision of a possible placement in deficiency of the city will be taken then, she specifies again.

If the prefect pronounced the deficiency, the city could be forced to pay fines or even be placed under state supervision for the issuance of building permits.

“The letter from the prefect points to the historical deficiency of Marseille linked to the previous majority. What is ironic is that it sets us unattainable objectives for catching up with the shortcomings of the right. 7.000 social housing, that would mean that we would have authorized only social housing for three years", defends in La Marseillaise Mathilde Chaboche, assistant in charge of urban planning at the municipality.

Printemps Marseille, a broad coalition of leftists and environmentalists, succeeded Jean-Claude Gaudin in June 2020, whose end of term was particularly marked by the issue of poor housing in France's second city, after the collapse of two dilapidated buildings in November 2018 which killed eight people.

During the general assembly of housing organized at the end of 2022 by the town hall of Marseille, the municipality had mentioned the construction of some 4.500 housing units per year, including 2.300 “affordable” housing units. In its electoral program, Printemps Marseille promised the construction of 30.000 housing units in six years, or 5.000 per year, "adapted to the income of the people of Marseille".