The HLM movement meets in congress, without a minister or budget

Restricted to "managing current affairs", the resigning ministers must theoretically avoid travel and taking political positions.

A "complex situation" for Emmanuelle Cosse, president of the USH, who recalls the 2024 edition where Valérie Létard was appointed Minister of Housing three days before the start of the congress.

The HLM movement will, however, be able to count on the many participating local elected officials, who are occupying the field six months before the municipal elections.

"For us, the objective, regardless of the political negotiations, is that the next finance law gets straight to the point on the central issues of housing," insists Emmanuelle Cosse, who was Minister of Housing from 2016 to 2017.

The crisis, which is affecting all aspects of the housing market, from private rentals to new construction, is placing ever-increasing demands on landlords for social housing: 2,87 million households were waiting at the end of June 2025.

"Housing is essential and it's becoming increasingly complicated," Bertrand Serp, president of Toulouse Métropole Habitat, told AFP, adding that he can only accept 10% of applications at his level.

The order of magnitude is the same across the entire national territory: the National Social Housing Control Authority (Ancols) estimates the rate of social housing applications satisfied in 2024 at 9,4%.

By 2024, 85.000 new social housing units had been approved, insufficient to meet demand according to Emmanuelle Cosse, for whom the goal should be to create 110.000 housing units per year.

"The battle in the coming weeks and months" will be to "find the means to invest more," says the ambassador for social landlords, who chose "the qualities of social housing" as the theme for the congress, in response to the regular attacks and denigration, particularly regarding the daily life and management of these homes.

"White Congress"

In addition to the 2026 budget, the role of the State in housing policy and its commitment to reviving the sector will be at the center of the debates.

"We have the impression that housing is not the government's priority, but it is the citizens' priority," notes Bertrand Serp, also a municipal councillor (LR) responsible for housing in Toulouse.

With no government members present at this annual meeting of a sector "very keen on encouraging signs", he said he feared a "blank congress" without any announcements.

"This is not the first time that we have said that housing policy is in disrepair. (...) We are really in a situation that has deteriorated further, we need a surge of commitment from the State," insists Emmanuelle Cosse.

For social landlords, the imperative to build new housing is added to that of renovating the existing stock by doubling down on thermal and energy renovations to meet climate commitments, in a tense financial context.

A study by the Banque des Territoires shows a "clear deterioration" in the self-financing capacity of social landlords in 2023, linked to the increase in the cost of credit and lower revenues from the sale of social housing.

The finances of social landlords have been battered in recent years by the rise in the Livret A rate, now down to 1,7%, the annual Solidarity Rent Reduction (RLS) levy by the State and the increase in construction costs.

The USH's main demands are to provide the National Stone Aid Fund (Fnap) with at least 700 million euros in commitment authorizations to manage the construction and renovation of social housing, to suspend the solidarity rent reduction and to allocate sufficient financial resources for urban renovation.