Grandstand. On January 6, at the microphone of a large national radio, a candidate for the presidency of the Republic, Eric Zemmour, proposed to abolish the law of solidarity and urban renewal (SRU) in the almost general indifference. Sad coincidence, we commemorated, a few days later, the fifteen years of the death of Abbé Pierre (1912-2007), whose last political fight was the defense of this law.
Revealing the state of public debate on questions of solidarity, this proposal is also revealing of the level of ignorance of its author on the reality of social housing in France, on its history, on its usefulness for the most deprived but above all for the middle classes of our country who largely benefit from it.
French tenants
More than one inhabitant in six in France lives in so-called social housing. This general term actually includes different types of low-rent housing, adapted to the different income brackets of the 70% of French people who are eligible for it.
Among them, key workers in our economy, for whom social housing allows them, for example, to live near the city center hospital in which they work; couples who are expecting their first child and are looking for a larger apartment at affordable rent; young people from modest backgrounds who leave the family home to settle down; elderly people whose old housing in rural areas is no longer suitable and who want to be closer to a city center with its transport and services. Only a third of social housing tenants fall below the low-income threshold, as defined by INSEE.
Far from only concerning the most modest households, which would not be a defect in itself, social housing is not housing for foreigners either, as Eric Zemmour scandalously claims. Thereby, 80% of social housing tenants are indeed French, and the people of foreign nationality who benefit from it are all in a regular situation.
Since its adoption in 2000, the SRU law has contributed to the construction of 1.8 million social housing units, with the sole objective of guaranteeing a supply of housing accessible throughout France to the middle and working classes.
A shame and a lie
pretend that she “spread immigration” is a disgrace and a lie, offering to remove it is an insult. An insult first to its craftsmen and its defenders of all political persuasions for more than twenty years. Then an insult to the vast majority of proactive mayors who make a fair place for social housing in their construction projects and respect the objectives set by law. Finally, an insult to the ten million people who live in social housing and to the two million registered on the waiting lists to obtain one.
You have 45.14% of this article left to read. The following is for subscribers only.