The HLM movement in congress with worrying prospects

The 83rd congress of the Social Union for Housing (USH), a confederation of landlords which represents more than 80% of social housing in France, is officially entitled "All our energies for housing".

Way of highlighting, one year after a major energy crisis, the ecological transition of the HLM park, including the essential - and already underway - renovation of housing.

Social landlords are not exempt from the timetable set by law, which plans to gradually ban the rental of the most energy-intensive housing: those labeled G from 2025, then F in 2028 and E in 2034.

According to the latest score, dating from the beginning of 2022, at least 35% of the social stock is classified E, F or G.

Very expensive projects for lessors with increasingly constrained finances; according to a report from the Banque des Territoires, with the rise in interest rates, landlords, if they want to achieve their renovation ambitions, will have to give up on new housing projects in the coming decades.

Trust ?

And this while the emergency is there: at the end of 2022, 2,42 million households were waiting for social housing - including 1,63 million for a first allocation. And their number has since continued to increase, report several organizations.

Conversely, fewer and fewer new housing units are authorized each year. In 2023, the number of authorizations - "approvals" in HLM jargon - in France should be "below" the 95.000 in 2022, which was already "a very bad year", worried the president of USH, Emmanuelle Cosse.

According to a study commissioned by the USH, 198.000 new social housing units should be created per year to respond to major demographic trends and reduce poor housing.

The three ministers who must make the trip are therefore eagerly awaited: Christophe Béchu, Minister of Ecological Transition, Philippe Vigier, responsible for Overseas Territories, and Patrice Vergriete, responsible for Housing.

The latter must speak at the close of the congress.

“We will continue this debate on what ambition for social housing on the part of the public authorities, is this ambition still there, and with what means to implement it,” Emmanuelle Cosse told AFP.

The desire to sign a "pact of confidence" between the State and the HLM movement seems to be fading more and more on the government's side, where we are now talking about territorialized conventions rather than a national agreement with quantified production objectives. .

Divisions

“Everything is possible, but we are going to be quite clear: the government will not be able to hide the fact that there is a housing crisis on a national scale,” retorted Emmanuelle Cosse, who has been constantly denouncing since arriving at the presidency of Emmanuel Macron, the savings measures imposed by the executive on the HLM world.

In its 2024 draft budget, the executive focuses on the renovation of private housing... but very few announcements concern social housing.

Only one measure has been put forward: the perpetuation of the “second life” system, which offers a property tax exemption for very old and energy-intensive housing that has been extensively renovated, to the level of new requirements.

Another difficulty: the HLM world arrives fractured between its two main components, public offices and social enterprises, in dispute over their financing.

The Federation of Public Offices (FOPH) has in fact filed an appeal against the giant Action Logement, demanding its share of the “1% employer” pie, a windfall paid by companies and used to finance social housing.

“I totally condemn this appeal, in form and in substance,” criticized Emmanuelle Cosse. “For me, those are not the values ​​of the HLM movement.”

Illustrative image of the article via Depositphotos.com.