“The lease for life does not exist”, responds the president of the Social Union for Housing to the Minister of Housing

In a newspaper interview The echoesthe Minister Delegate for Housing Guillaume Kasbarian declared that he wanted to encourage the exit from social housing of tenants who have “well exceeded the income ceilings”. And thus put an end to the principle of social housing “for life”. A notion that Emmanuelle Cosse, president of the Social Union for Habitat, the association representing the HLM sector, and herself a former Minister of Housing, contests. “The minister speaks of a lifetime lease which does not exist”, she retorted Friday April 12 on franceinfo.

“There are 3% of tenant households who may be subject to what is called a rent supplement”, because “revenues would exceed”, explains Emmanuelle Cosse. Except that “the State asked that this not be applied” notably “in the name of social diversity” in certain territories, she says. Emmanuelle Cosse recalls that a “annual inspection” Already exists : “All HLM tenants must declare their income every year. They are checked to see if they have the right to stay in this accommodation.” In the current state of the regulations, if this “resources survey” shows that the tenants exceed a certain resource ceiling, their landlord can increase their rent and if they report even higher income, he can in certain cases refuse to renew their lease. The president of the Social Union for Housing assures that today, tenants who do not present their income are “immediately” subject to additional rent. And excess income is regulated: “Beyond a certain threshold, they will no longer be able to stay in social housing. Every year, people leave.”

“The big issue is that we are not building enough”

According to Emmanuelle Cosse, the novelty in the bill which will be presented to the Council of Ministers in May for examination in June is that donors must formalize “a summary of these controls in a report sent to the prefect every year”.

Guillaume Kasbarian estimates that more than 8% of HLM tenants would no longer be eligible for social housing if they applied for it today. Emmanuelle Cosse questions this figure: “I don’t know where it comes from”. According to the former Minister of Housing, “We use this expression ‘housing for life’ to create controversy, while the big subject today is that we are not building enough social housing”. According to her, “we have never had so many applicants and construction is in crisis.”