Guillaume Kasbarian, Minister for Housing, wants to accelerate the exit from social housing for tenants who, with their current income, should no longer benefit from it.
The government is tackling the housing issue and particularly around the occupation of public housing. This Thursday, April 11, Guillaume Kasbarian, Minister for Housing, explained to the Echoes that the government plans to encourage the exit from social housing for tenants who “have largely exceeded the income ceilings”. The minister deplores that 1.8 million households who “legitimately apply to enter” HLM are “prevented from doing so while there are people within the social housing stock whose situation has largely changed since they are given their accommodation.
This would concern 8% of people benefiting from social housing, who, if they made such a request today, would see it refused. “We must re-examine the relevance of continuing to occupy social housing for those who sometimes have a second home in their possession, and whose heritage, and this is the meaning of life, has evolved,” he declared. . The objective is thus to put an end to “for life” social housing.
To clarify the situation, the minister wishes to require social landlords to carry out a regular assessment of the “personal, financial and property situation” of tenants. Thus, the renewal of the lease or the level of the rent may be questioned. Today, tenants respond to a simple “resources survey” which describes their financial situation. If a certain ceiling is exceeded, the rent can be increased and if a second ceiling is exceeded, the lessor is authorized in certain cases to refuse a renewal of the lease.
A will that divides
Mayors should also obtain more power in the allocation of social housing. However, it will be necessary to respect “the target objectives of 20 to 25% of social housing” in the municipalities concerned by the SRU law (Solidarity and urban renewal). Those who are behind in the production of HLM could resort to intermediate housing, intended for the middle classes. These provisions could be integrated into a housing bill which will be presented to the Council of Ministers in May.
This desire of the government is not unanimous. According to Eddie Jacquemart on RMC, president of the National Housing Confederation, this is not the solution. “We dream of supposedly driving out the less poor from the poor but ultimately what do we want in this society, we have to accept that there are people, when they have earned more money, they have paid taxes and they have the additional rent which applies, so why should we take away social housing from them today.” The only solution according to him: increase the number of HLMs.