One breath for two lungs: private and social

Without new housing, there is no social housing. And without social housing, there is no housing. The housing crisis is not a dispute over distribution or even a debate over solidarity; it is above all a crisis of production, a simple truth that we must have the lucidity to recognize and the courage to speak out.

Social demand always arises from the tensions of the free market. When construction slows, supply becomes scarce, prices soar, and entire families shift to social housing. At the same time, the production of social housing also relies on private sector momentum: each program launched by a developer brings with it a share of social housing, transferred to landlords under regulated conditions. Thus, each building erected becomes a promise of affordable housing, each construction site a chance to broaden the horizons of waiting households.

Social housing is therefore not an isolated sector. It is a direct extension of the private sector's dynamic. When free construction is interrupted, the entire housing sector grinds to a halt. Municipalities are faced with their SRU obligations, landlords are deprived of land and space, and households looking for a roof over their heads find themselves without an answer.

Relaunching production is not an option; it's an emergency. Developers must continue to integrate social housing into their programs. Landlords must seize opportunities and take advantage of the decline in the Livret A savings account. As for local authorities and the state, they must offer a clear, stable, and incentive-based framework that simplifies procedures and charts a sustainable path.

This is more of an alliance than a compromise: developers, landlords, and public authorities, united around the same goal: to produce more and produce better. Only then will we be able to respond to the housing emergency and prevent the French people's sense of downgrading from taking root. And this is undoubtedly one of the messages that the HLM Congress, right now, should be carrying forward: to remind everyone that the future of social housing will not be built against private housing, but with it, in this common breath that gives life to the two lungs of housing.

Tribune by Norbert Fanchon, President of the Gambetta Group (LinkedIn).