Housing is a major cause of inequality, particularly between young people and those over 65. This inequality has been reinforced by policies which have neglected the tenant to promote access to property. For sociologist Fanny Bugeja, it is urgent to guarantee access to housing for all, in particular by better targeting aid to those who need it most.
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Young people and the poor are today burdened by the cost of housing
In 20 years, the weight of housing in household budgets has increased considerably, to the point of becoming unbearable for some. This is the case for tenants in the private sector but also, to a lesser extent, for tenants in social housing, in particular young people and low-income households. The cost of available space has almost doubled in 20 years for private sector tenants while it has remained almost stable for owners, including indebted owners. At the same time, the typical profile of the tenant has changed: he has become younger and poorer, under the effect of the later and more difficult integration of young people into the employment and employment market. increased banking requirements for obtaining a property loan.
The housing crisis primarily affects young people who are not helped by their families
Generational inequalities in housing have reached an unacceptable level. Housing weighs far too heavily on the budgets of young adult renters, who are forced to considerably reduce the share of expenses they devote to leisure activities. Conversely, three out of four of those over 65 own their main residence and no longer have to pay a mortgage. Freed from this financial constraint, they can devote an increasingly important place to leisure in their lifestyle.
Added to these generational inequalities are inequalities between young people, depending on whether or not they are helped by parents who are property owners themselves. Unassisted youth are not only penalized by the weakness of parental support (level of financial assistance, absence of deposit for access to rental, etc.) but also by the absence of State aid or of the community.
Housing policy is fundamentally unequal
Housing policy has failed in its objectives. It did not make it possible to alleviate, as it had the ambition, the budgetary constraint on housing for young people and the most deprived. On the contrary, one of the effects of Personalized Housing Assistance (PLA) to young people and students was the increase in rents for housing intended for them. Likewise, measures in favor of home ownership (the zero-interest loan in particular) have encouraged the rise in property prices and mainly benefited well-off households who would have become owners even in the absence of such measures.
Successive governments have chosen to prioritize home ownership ; this policy accelerated from 2007. However, this heritage and conservative logic was to the detriment of rental. The era of the all-powerful tenant and low rents of the 1960s, during which it was not uncommon to be a tenant for a lifetime, is now well and truly over. Housing policy has therefore led to the reproduction of social inequalities from generation to generation.
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