When her HLM organization contacted her in April to inform her that she could certainly benefit from a housing allowance, Nathalie (her first name has been changed) says she was “extremely surprised”. “Frankly, if my lessor, the RIVP [Régie immobilière de la Ville de Paris]had not come to me, I would never have thought that I had the right to it »she adds.
Now self-employed in the sphere of well-being, the forty-year-old, tenant of a 70 square meter three-room apartment in the Nation district of Paris, has seen her income plummet in the space of a few years. “When I moved into this apartment in 2010, I was an executive in a large company and a single mother, I was able to benefit from 1% housingshe says. Today, as a freelancer, I earn less than 10,000 euros per year. » With this small income, she must pay rent of 800 euros per month, charges included. “My 24-year-old son has a small salary, he contributes to certain expenses, and I benefit from family assistance. We managevsit’s ric-rac, it never balances out, we count everything, she admits. But I don’t particularly feel sorry for it. »
When a tenant obtains social housing, most HLM organizations ensure that a request for personalized housing assistance (APL) has been made. If this tenant then encounters difficulties in paying their rent, the lessor will also check that all social assistance has been mobilized. But, in the absence of a payment incident, their eligibility for housing benefits – due to a drop in resources caused by a separation, the death of a spouse, a loss of job or the transition to retirement – will go unnoticed.
“As a social landlord, through our annual surveys carried out among occupants, we have their reference tax income. We also know if they receive APL and if they pay their rent. We therefore decided to work on these three data to identify pockets of non-recourse”explains Christine Laconde, general director of RIVP, the second largest social landlord in Paris with more than 60,000 social housing units.
“It’s super relieving.”
In 2022, a first experiment on a sample of occupants showed that one in five households, among the poorest in the park, did not receive APL and nevertheless continued to pay their rent. “It’s edifying, something had to be done, so we called them and we came back as much as possible”continues Mme Laconde, who, before joining the RIVP, directed Samusocial in Paris. As a result, nearly 40% of these targeted and eligible households now benefit from a housing allowance, with average assistance of 220 euros per month.
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