The communist group in the Senate intends to table a bill to allow mayors to requisition housing that is “vacant, unoccupied or insufficiently occupied for more than six months”, a power hitherto reserved for the State.
Brandished in the middle of a cold spell, this proposal aims to allow municipalities to requisition themselves buildings which have been empty for sometimes 10 years, 15 years, explained Parisian senator Ian Brossat on Thursday on RMC.
The law already allows the State to requisition vacant housing, but acts of violence are extremely rare because the prefects only requisition today if the owners agree, argued the former housing deputy at Paris town hall.
The same power for the mayor as for the state
According to the text sent to AFP, the proposal plans to offer the mayor the same power as the State to requisition vacant, unoccupied or insufficiently occupied residential premises for more than six months. in cities where significant imbalances exist between supply and demand for housing.
According to a recent study by the Parisian Urban Planning Agency (Apur), 128,000 Parisian housing units were vacant in 2020, or nearly one in ten housing units. By including housing occupied occasionally or as secondary residences, the capital is the second city with the most unoccupied housing (19%), behind Nice (28%) and ahead of Grenoble (17%) and Nancy (16%), again according to Apur.
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Let’s not start with vacant buildings like offices or old parking lots, which are much easier to requisition than a vacant apartment in a condominium, asked Ian Brossat. As for the latter, it is not a question of requisitioning housing that has been empty for a few months but for yearsassured the elected communist.
According to the Abb Pierre Foundation, the number of homeless people in France has reached 330,000 in 2023, an increase of 30,000 compared to the previous year, recall the communist senators.