The five main associations of social housing tenants castigated in a press release on Wednesday the government’s housing bill currently being prepared, accusing it of “hunting for the poor”.
“Tenant associations (AFOC, CGL, CLCV, CNL, CSF) oppose a bill that hunts down the poor, rewards outlaw mayors, promotes cronyism, and sells social housing in in the midst of a housing supply crisis,” they proclaim together.
The bill carried by Minister Guillaume Kasbarian, which intends to promote housing for the middle classes while construction is at half mast, provides for several provisions which have made defenders of social housing jump.
It intends to lower the ceilings above which social housing tenants must pay increased rent, and encourage the eviction of HLM residents whose income allows them to find accommodation in private housing.
“It is not by pitting the working class against the middle class that we will resolve the housing crisis and create social diversity in HLM,” respond the associations.
Wanted by Prime Minister Gabriel Attal, another controversial provision should allow certain municipalities below their quota of social housing to partially integrate intermediate housing, with rents and income ceilings higher than in HLM, in their production serving to catch up.
The bill, which must be presented on May 7 to the Council of Ministers for examination in the Senate in June, must also give increased room for maneuver to mayors in allocating social housing.
“The minister (Guillaume Kasbarian) opens (…) the door to the worst abuses,” criticize the five tenant associations. “Electoral patronage, favoritism according to political opinions or even national preference in certain municipalities. (…) We would return to the scandals of the 1980s and 1990s, erasing more than 20 years of reforms to make the process of allocating social housing more transparent, fair and just,” they believe.