Substandard housing in Marseille, a never-ending fight that began on Rue d’Aubagne

"Absolute priority" of the left-wing municipal majority since 2020, after 25 years of inaction under the reign of Jean-Claude Gaudin (LR) - "Our battles were born in the misfortune of rue d'Aubagne", said mayor Benoît Payan recently -, the fight against unsanitary housing is nevertheless slow to produce effects, with still as many slums and a growing need for social housing.

In mid-October, during the annual housing meetings organized by the municipality, Benoît Payan assured that "for the first time, this summer, the curve of buildings at risk has reversed", even if the number of slums across the city has stagnated at around 40.000, with ever more reports.

"A before and an after"

Increased number of checks - 2.500 for 2023 - thanks to reinforced teams, increase in the budget allocated to official work on dangerous buildings - 4,2 million euros in 2023, i.e. 25 times more than in 2018 -, "there is a before and after rue d'Aubagne", confirms Francis Vernède, director of the Abbé Pierre foundation in Paca.

"Since 2020, the city has issued 1.400 safety orders and removed 518 buildings from these dangerous situations," says Patrick Amico, deputy mayor in charge of housing and the fight against substandard housing. He emphasizes that "the nature of the orders has changed, with fewer and fewer evictions and less dangerous situations than those we found three years ago."

But, he acknowledges, "it's going very slowly: when we make a building safe, we can intervene very quickly, but these are works that only make the building safe, to prevent its collapse, it doesn't rehabilitate it". Especially since, in the majority of cases, these interventions affect private buildings.

Since 2019, the Aix-Marseille Metropolis has imposed a rental permit on owners in the Noailles district, which includes Rue d'Aubagne. It should be extended next year.

Another aspect is the fight against slum landlords, "thieves who seize substandard housing and profit from it", in the words of the mayor, who promised them "war", with 162 reports to the prosecutor since 2020 and around thirty convictions in court.

"Insufficient and late"

"For us, associations, what is being done is still very, very insufficient and above all very late," says Emmanuel Patris, co-president of Un centre-ville pour tous. But "we are starting from very far away" and "the municipality only has a small part of the skills that affect housing." Urban renovation, like the production of social housing, is the responsibility of the Metropolis and the State.

In mid-October, the Société publique locale d'aménagement d'intérêt national, created in 2021 by the State, the Métropole and the City, kicked off a first renovation project for four buildings in Noailles. By 2032, the SPLA-IN aims to rehabilitate 182 buildings in the city center, promising 70% of social housing.

"What about the rest?" asks Mr. Patris. "Because we are very, very far from the objectives! We are on 400 buildings identified as very problematic, therefore around 4.000 housing units. And we know that during these ten years, others will arrive!"

Another major project announced by Emmanuel Macron in 2021, in his "Marseille en Grand" plan, the renovation of large, degraded private co-ownerships is currently at a standstill, due to its legal complexity.

In the meantime, Marseille is seriously lacking in social housing, which 73% of households could claim, with a major geographical distortion in the supply.

"In the city centre, we have an average of around 10% of social housing. In Noailles it's 4%, while 80% of the population is eligible," Mr Patris emphasises.

In five years, the number of unfilled applications has exploded, rising from 39.000 in 2019 to more than 50.000, according to the city hall.

"In Marseille, one in four residents lives below the poverty line," recalls Francis Vernède. "So many potential customers for substandard housing, and that reinforces the power of owners who say to themselves +well, I'll always have someone to come+."

"We're not at the end of the tunnel at all! We have to keep up the pressure," he says. "And it's not because people are jostling to live in a slum that the slum has any value. No, it just tells us a lot about the poverty in Marseille!"