At a time when the National Agency for Urban Renewal (ANRU) is preparing to celebrate its 20th anniversary in 2024, what assessment can be drawn from its action in the priority neighborhoods of urban policy? It is to answer this question that the deputies of the LFI-Nupes parliamentary group have launched a “Hello ANRU” campaign, led by the deputy of Haute-Garonne François Piquemal (LFI). The latter presented the report of this initiative on Monday June 12 to the National Assembly, accompanied by Marianne Maximi (Puy-de-Dôme), Farida Amrani (Essonne) and David Guiraud (North).
“Are people in the neighborhoods happier? Has the precariousness disappeared? What about insecurity? The ANRU is above all a broken promise. An agency whose existence must be re-examined in the light of the housing crisis and climate change “says François Piquemal, who visited around thirty neighborhoods in twenty cities for several months.
The MP is particularly critical of the national agency, mentioning despite everything, lip service, “some successes”and regrets the lack of evaluation of these urban renewal programs since their launch in 2004. This is why the parliamentary group has proposed an information mission to the delegation to local authorities and decentralization, which it hopes launch by fall, “ in order to make an exhaustive, detailed and statistical assessment of the ANRU’s missions for the 700 neighborhoods and the 5 million inhabitants impacted by the urban renewal projects »specifies François Piquemal.
The opinion of the inhabitants
Beyond the figures, the “rebellious” deputies want a reflection to be carried out on the future of urban renewal in the face of climate issues, in particular on the subject of the destruction of buildings, a vast debate which is struggling to bring about a consensus. “These destructions are also real uprootings for people in the neighborhoods”emphasizes Marianne Maximi. “It’s anguish and wear and tear for these inhabitants who live for years in construction sites, in the uncertainty of a new home”adds François Piquemal.
According to the elected officials, these inhabitants are also too often excluded from the discussions around the projects which will concern their district. “We come from above with a national agency and we decide for them how and where they want to live”, continues Marianne Maximi. According to the report, the citizens’ councils, which are supposed to serve as relays for the voices of the inhabitants throughout the projects, are rarely set up and do not really weigh in on the consultations. “On the whole, the inhabitants agree to renovate their neighborhood. They want it to change but simply by taking their opinion into account”says David Guiraud, taking the example of the Alma-Gare district, in Roubaix (North), in his constituency, where a collective is campaigning against an urban renewal project.
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