The very sensitive new housing law passes a first filter in the Senate

Before an examination in the hemicycle which promises to be eventful from June 18 at first reading, the text of Minister Guillaume Kasbarian passed a first senatorial filter, that of the Economic Affairs Committee of the upper house.

The senatorial majority, an alliance of right and center, approved most of the measures, not without expressing a number of reservations and toughening some of them in the eyes of the left.

“It is a law which does no harm but which does not do much good”, summarized Sophie Primas (Les Républicains) to AFP. “Its scope is extremely constrained, we are far from responding to the housing crisis,” added centrist Amel Gacquerre.

The most discussed point concerns the reform of the Solidarity and Urban Renewal (SRU) law, which imposes social housing quotas on certain cities.

The government wishes to allow certain cities that have not achieved their objective to include a portion of intermediate housing (LLI) in their quota to catch up, as part of a “social diversity contract” with the State. The senatorial majority has considerably expanded the number of municipalities eligible for this development.

Several sanctions for municipalities with a deficit in social housing were also removed in committee, as was the “national SRU commission”, an advisory body responsible for monitoring compliance with these objectives.

“It is necessary to better adapt the SRU law according to the local constraints of our mayors,” explained Ms. Gacquerre.

The left is head-on against this measure. “Yes to the construction of intermediate housing, but not to the detriment of social housing,” regretted socialist senator Viviane Artigalas, denouncing “a law which will further stigmatize the HLM park”.

Environmentalist senator Yannick Jadot expressed regret at a measure which, according to him, “rewards” cities “which refuse to play the game of social diversity”. “It is a cynical law, to the detriment of the most vulnerable,” he added.

In committee, the Senate also strengthened the power of mayors in the allocation of social housing in their municipalities: where the government proposed to give them a right of veto for the first allocations of HLM, that is to say for the newly constructed HLMs, the senators extended this veto to all attributions.

“It is very serious regarding the SRU law, because there are almost no sanctions left for municipalities which do not reach the required quotas,” reacted Manuel Domergue, director of studies at the Abbé Pierre Foundation. “Mayors will have a right of veto on all attributions and on all candidates, while the initial text provided for a veto for one candidacy only, it is really a hard blow for the poorly housed if it is adopted”, he added.