The prefect of Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur calls for "relaunching the construction of social housing"

Q: Do you share the cry of alarm from the mayor of Marseille in the face of poor housing?

A: "We have a climate of tension on housing and social housing which is paroxysmal in Marseille. We have a difficult situation for all households who would like to access housing, including for working employees. housing is chronic in a social stock that is at the same time geographically unbalanced, degraded in terms of quality and largely insufficient in relation to demand. We see a very substantial increase in the number of people supported by the State at the hotel. was out of 300 to 400 people sheltered per day before the health crisis, in 2020 we have largely exceeded 2.300 to 2.500 and today we are at 2.000 people per day but having extreme difficulties to organize a route residential which would make it possible to move from the hotel to a social residence and from the social residence to housing.

The situation is degraded in the city but also in all the department of Bouches-du-Rhône and in Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur. It tends to worsen since at the level of the region, we had reached 12.000 social housing units per year built or approved in 2019, but the figure fell to 7.000 in 2020 and probably it will not rise significantly in 2021. 12.000. The objective set for the region by the minister is XNUMX social housing units per year. "

Q: Why such a drop?

A: "There is a Covid effect but that cannot explain this decrease. We are in a region which is less favorable to social housing than others in France. There are also blocking elements such as the cost of land or constraints linked to natural risks.And then, at the national level, there is a form of hesitation on the part of a certain number of mayors, because the models to which our fellow citizens aspire are no longer models which provide for urban development, the arrival new inhabitants. There is a reluctance for social housing but also for new construction, because it is an extension of urbanized areas. "

Q: Should we do more and faster? The Metropolis does not yet have a Local Housing Program, the key tool for defining a housing strategy.

A: "The collective work between all the actors, town hall, Metropolis, State, social landlords etc ... must be intensified. Everything must be done to accelerate the implementation of a local program of the housing, we must relaunch very strongly the construction of housing and social housing and ensure a rebalancing in the establishment of the latter.If we do not work on the supply of housing, we will be faced for weeks, months, years to a phenomenon which will only worsen and which will be more and more difficult to regulate. "