The Aix-Marseille-Provence metropolis adopts a long-awaited local housing plan

Long awaited and postponed several times, this PLH, adopted unanimously, displays over the period 2023/2028 the objective of creating 11.000 “delivered housing units” per year, including some 5.200 social housing units, in this metropolis of 92 municipalities and of more than 1,8 million inhabitants.

For the city of Marseille, which has 870.000 inhabitants and some of the poorest neighborhoods in Europe where a large part of the housing is very degraded, this annual "objective" is 4.500 housing units, including "2.300 affordable housing units".

“This PLH is favorable to the relaunch of the production of housing, including social” and “will allow us to develop all the tools to meet the immense needs”, estimated David Ytier, deputy vice-president for Housing of the majority of right of the Metropolis.

The left-wing opposition voted for the text, with Patrick Amico, deputy mayor of Marseille in charge of Housing, saying he was "very happy with the effort that will be made within the framework of the PLH".

The adoption of the plan also opens the way to the implementation of rent control in Marseille, desired by the municipality and to which the government had given the green light at the end of 2022.

The council also adopted a controversial motion, submitted by a group of the right-wing majority, demanding an "evolution" of the SRU law (law relating to Solidarity and Urban Renewal), which sets quotas for social housing in certain municipalities. More than a third of the municipalities concerned in the Aix-Marseille metropolis do not respect their obligations in this area.

President Martine Vassal (ex-LR) joined in this request, in particular by co-signing a letter from around forty mayors of the department requesting a meeting with the Minister of Housing, Guillaume Kasbarian, to discuss this issue.

“We do not want to change the spirit of the law, which is admirable, but its application, which is incorrect,” declared Georges Cristiani, president of the Union of Mayors of Bouches-du-Rhône.

“There is such a difficulty in obtaining land that we cannot do it,” he noted, proposing “to no longer think in terms of stock (of existing housing) but in flow (of building permits issued) " and that mayors have the "attribution" of social housing.

The left-wing opposition voted against, Patrick Amico, describing the SRU law as "the foundation of the republican balance", the distribution of the number of social housing between Marseille and the surrounding towns remaining a thorny issue.

He estimated that "the metropolis must put in place a land and support policy to allow municipalities (not respecting the law) to return to solidarity", provoking the anger of many mayors present.

Ms. Vassal in turn criticized the Marseille town hall for being "far away" from its commitments and for "making France's second city fall behind extremely hard to catch up."