Emmanuelle Cosse said on franceinfo Monday her “very great disappointment” in the face of “vague or non-existent measures”. The representative of the Social Union for Habitat does not see “measures which could make it possible to have a shock and to stop this extremely difficult crisis”.
The government “has not yet understood the seriousness of the situation”reacted Monday June 5 on franceinfo Emmanuelle Cosse, president of the Social Union for the habitat, representative association of the HLM sector, and former Minister of Housing, while government detailed its plan to defuse the “risk of social bomb” what is the housing crisis? This plan is taken from the discussions of the National Council for Refoundation (CNR), whose Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne concluded the housing component on Monday evening.
franceinfo: How do you welcome the Prime Minister’s announcements on housing?
Emmanuelle Cosse: This is a great disappointment since we worked for six months to make many proposals to develop the production of social housing and really unlock access to affordable housing. And this evening, we had the announcement of at best vague and often non-existent measures. It is a misunderstanding, beyond disappointment. We had a very committed speech from the Prime Minister who told us that she wanted to tackle the housing problem, meet the need for affordable housing for all French people. And besides that, we really don’t have the material for measures that could make it possible to have a shock of measures and to stem this extremely difficult crisis.
In your opinion, behind the government’s intentions, there is nothing satisfactory?
We do not see any change compared to what has been happening for six years on housing, and in particular on social housing. There is no aid to produce more social housing, no access to land that would allow us to go faster. And in addition, there is this idea, which continues to exist within the government, that the housing policy would not need public aid to function. But it is precisely this reduction in public aid over the past six years that has put us in this situation, which is very bad and which, I fear, will continue to worsen.
What do you expect now from the executive?
All of the housing players were unanimous in their disappointment. We still hope that this will create an electric shock within the government. The Prime Minister said very clearly that she wanted to review all the HLM actors to move forward together. So hopefully this is just the start. But we are not at all at the level of the needs of the French. I imagine all the people who ask for social housing today: they say to themselves, but what are they doing?
Is there an effort you were expecting that does not appear in the measures announced?
I was waiting for people to say that we were pulling out all the stops to produce and very quickly accelerate the production of social housing. And today is not what was said. There are 2,400,000 people applying for social housing. This number has never been so high. It increased by 7% in one year. That is to say that from year to year, there are fewer and fewer accommodations available and more and more employees who say that they cannot find accommodation. In this period when we are told about full employment, access to employment for everyone, there is no housing available. The State can also take electroshock measures. In the past, there have been and they worked. Today, I don’t think they have yet understood the seriousness of the situation and what this can generate in terms of social tension tomorrow.