Last September, the government promised to sign a “trust pact” with the HLM sector. Franceinfo was able to consult a working document, the first drafts of which worry the actors of social housing. Jean-Rémi Baudot’s political brief.
These are three pages that have been circulating for a few weeks between the cabinet of the Minister of Housing Olivier Klein and the various actors in the world of social housing: a confidential working document, on free paper. No header or signature here, but a long list that sets out the government’s findings, ambitions and objectives on social housing. This is a “trust pact” promised by the Prime Minister, which franceinfo was able to consult and which raises many questions.
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What worries the world of social housing are phrases that could sound like general intentions, but which could also have very concrete and very negative repercussions if I believe several interlocutors. Example, page 1: “The social housing policy could be designed to align with the full employment policy pursued by the government”, can we read. Then, page 2: “An orientation could be the attention that social housing goes to the right people in the right places“.
Behind this, there is the fear that the government wants to regain control over the allocation of social housing, to force landlords to sort according to the income of beneficiaries and that this Pact does not provide any solution. Neither to the construction, nor to the necessary financing, in particular for the ecological transition.
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The Office of the Minister of Housing specifies that this is a working document which is intended to evolve. “We are in the middle of negotiations“, confirms an adviser. But it must be borne in mind that the actors of social housing have never really recovered from the reforms of Emmanuel Macron’s first five-year term: the drop in APL and endowments, 15 billion in savings in all on the sector since 2017, insufficient housing production (95,000 in 2021 against a target of 125,000) and, still, the Abbé Pierre Foundation, which counts four million poorly housed French people.
The whole sector is under pressure, and this working document therefore comes in a context where many are rather expecting funding and concrete action. On the government side, we want to be reassuring. Social housing is at the heart of the “National Housing Refoundation Council”, the conclusions of which will be released at the end of March, beginning of April. As a reminder, more than two million people are waiting for social housing in France. There are only 400,000 grants each year.