French society sick with housing

“” French society, at the start of XXI^e century, is sick with housing. »From the first sentence, Didier Vanoni, director of the design office Fors-Arearche social, and Christophe Robert, director of studies of the Abbé Pierre Foundation, plant the decor of their work on the various manifestations of “ unhealthy And its social causes. While this question is at the heart of the news, the two authors, whose particularity is to conduct their research in non -university organizations and to work as close as possible to actors in the field, deliver the results of their concrete experience and their observations.

A chronic evil

The introduction of the book contextualizes the current situation with finesse. First of all, the authors recall an observation that we too often forget: the housing crisis is not a temporary phenomenon but a chronic pathology. A retrospective look at the scale of the century indeed shows that the imbalance between supply and demand for housing was permanent, apart from a few short periods of remission, including the years 1970-1975. Another constant during history: the question of housing always redoubles the social question. In the recent period, the development of denatured forms of housing is concomitant with the evolution that has affected the world of work, where forms of employment and salary relationships are increasingly marked by precariousness. Finally, an essential development lies in the decline in regulations made by the State. Public action in the field of housing no longer claims to regulate or administer, it “ socially accompanied “, When it is not content to facilitate the operation of the markets. And it is against this disengagement that the whole of the work intends to rise.

A diversified evil

The first part draws up a vast panorama of situations of “ unhealthy And highlights the heterogeneity and the extension of this condition to layers of the social body which were previously preserved. Successively discussed cases of fixed domicile and wandering populations, audiences who do not have personal housing (hosted in temporary reception structures, by family, friends or third parties), audiences with limited occupation rights (squats, households in expulsion, households living in furnished hotels …), households living in conditions “ unworthy And finally specific audiences such as young people and students, travel people, seasonal workers in tourism and agriculture, immigrants and migrant workers. Malgence, even if it is difficult to quantify, therefore covers a very wide range of situations, this vast inventory testifying to the multidimensional nature of the question. However, this situation of precariousness has harmful effects on physical and mental health, implies risks in terms of social and professional integration, especially young people, and, even if it remains to be demonstrated, can participate in the production of deviant acts. Vanoni and Robert then proposed to adopt an approach to poor housing in terms of “ social costs Which should justify a more ambitious policy.

The political deregulation in question

The second part of the book endeavors to demonstrate that the housing crisis has its origin in political dysfunctions and points to the dangers of current developments. After a reminder of the major stages of constitution of the French real estate stock and the way in which the latter has been able to meet or not the social demand since 1900, the conclusion is without appeal: “ The recurring crisis of housing has various origins and actually proceeds from a set of actors’ strategies which, left to their own logic, produce many perverse effects that public policies not very coherent and above all insufficiently constant and ambitious are difficult to correct. “(P. 118) The current crisis gives a perfect illustration of this lack of political regulation: production has never been so strong while households are always more difficult to find an offer corresponding to their resources. To explain this paradox, the work takes up an analysis widely developed by the annual report of the Abbé Pierre Foundation, namely that the policy carried out in recent years only aims at the upper part of the middle layers by suggesting that it is addressed to everyone. We thus observe a housing crisis with accessible rents, the offer being today completely out of step with demand. For example, until 2002, 60 to 65% of the new construction flow was accessible to households whose income did not exceed the ceiling below which it is possible to access social housing, knowing that 70% of households are in this situation. In recent years, this trend has overturned: housing products whose rents are lower than market prices and/or agreed by resource ceilings are only around 40%.

According to the authors, decentralization is also one of the movements that have structured the current housing landscape, the State is working to supervise, as much as possible, local housing policies while trying to make communities carry the responsibility of production and planning in terms of housing. According to them, this development is carrying out dangers for a coherent housing policy. First of all, intercommunalities (EPCI) find it difficult to orient the construction towards the production of “ Real social housing “, THE Plain-I (Loan rental of integration), perceived as the vector for the arrival of people in difficulty in the municipalities, being the subject of a clear rejection. Another problem is that of the consistency and convergence of objectives between the different communities, as well as that of their empowerment in the field of housing policy. However, certain local communities, becoming aware of the importance of the problem of habitat for the overall development of the territory, are engaged in proactive policies. In general, they endeavor to develop, diversify and better distribute production, to act on the local market (by playing on prices) and to better protect the most vulnerable. This is perhaps the only optimistic note in the work: “ We note that, despite an institutional environment still in recomposition, communities are trying not to leave the question of housing to the only logic of the market and demonstrate that the housing crisis is not inevitable ‘. (P. 161).

Housing crisis and territorial segregation

In addition, according to Vanoni and Robert, it is necessary to make the link between the housing crisis and the territorial segregation which continues to strengthen, as the “ suburbs In the fall of 2005. The measures do not seem to be taken to solve this problem. The state of course tries to restore a certain territorial balance. Thus, the law Sru (Urban solidarity and renewal) aims to correct the lack of solidarity between the territories and to impose the construction of social housing in the urban communes which are insufficiently endowed. Likewise, several actions have been carried out in recent years to boost the construction of social housing and regulate the effects of the crisis. However, some actors try to evade this obligation of solidarity by expanding for example the definition of social housing for “ dissolve »The obligation to build it. In addition, the construction effort mainly rested during the period 2002-2004 in the municipalities which were already the best endowed with social housing. However, those which have an important social park are naturally faced with stronger social expenses than those which let the entries on the territory filter. In the end, cities with the lowest tax potential must resolve not to offer the same quality of public services when demand is often stronger. There is therefore a new source of inequality there, if decentralization is not accompanied by a strong redistribution between the territories.

Another possible danger, this time linked to the law Dalois that social landlords focus on the most vulnerable and are confined to a function of reception of the excluded. The donors are indeed placed in front of a paradoxical injunction which encourages them to accommodate the poorest and to organize social diversity in neighborhoods at the same time. Finally, beyond the undeniable advance that constitutes this law, the feeling that dominates is to be in front of a text which leaves aside the overhaul of the architecture of habitat and housing policies, necessary for the ordering of obligations and means around the obligation of newly established results. Other examples, such as emergency accommodation, betray the lack of structural response: “ It is urgent to go beyond the current system of the response to the blow and the arrangements made from the media pressure. (P. 205) The legislator is therefore satisfied with a logic of rectification on the margin of inequalities.

In general, the authors of this book make a real effort to think about the housing crisis in a global way. In less than 250 pages, they offer a good overview of the question and the complex logics that cross it. We regret, however, that they have not considered it useful to mention their particular positioning, that is to say their links with the militant research of the Abbé Pierre Foundation. Certain concepts such as the notion of “ disadvantaged households ” Or “ modest Would also have gained more rigorously defined. In any case, this book analyzes in a fine and clear way the major contemporary changes in housing and constitutes a convincing manifesto in favor of a new public regulation.