2024-01-31 20:00:06
When we say unworthy housing (i.e. any housing situation that undermines human dignity, according to the Penal Code), we immediately think of the media figure of “sleep merchant», an owner who takes advantage of his tenants and rents accommodation that is normally unsuitable for habitation at a high price. But, as the Abbé Pierre Foundation notes in its 29th report on the state of poor housing in France, which will be presented on February 1, on the occasion of the 70th anniversary of Abbé Pierre’s appeal, housing unworthy is not limited to this figure. Half of the potentially unworthy housing concerns owner-occupiers. “We go beyond the spectacular, beyond the simple denunciation of slumlords. It is not a Manichean process, it is slower to resolve», Says Manuel Domergue, director of studies at the Foundation. We can therefore detect forms of unworthy housing hidden behind beautiful facades, for example, or isolated in rural areas.
The Abbé Pierre Foundation takes the example of elderly people whose housing has deteriorated and farmers forced to stay in dilapidated homes like Pierre and Emmanuel, two farming brothers in Tarn-et-Garonne. Part of their roof fell into their living room. The two men had balanced pallets to hold the floor and the ceiling of one of the rooms was held up by props. Aged 50, the two men grew up on their parents’ farm which they later took over. They work outdoors all day and have little time to spend at home. These French people are part of this invisible unworthy habitat.
Shipwrecked from the acquisition
Likewise, the Foundation collected the testimony of a young couple of first-time buyers aged 24 and 32 who bought an old stable in Brittany for 36,000 euros. When they moved there in 2016, the wind passed through the joinery of the doors and windows, the roof was not insulated and the heat produced by the wood stove in the living room escaped quickly. “We also came here because the houses were more affordable, our budget is very limited. We have the possibility of growing a vegetable garden on the land, this is also our objective, to aim for autonomy to have the least possible expenses.…,” confides the young couple who underestimated the extent of the work to be carried out. The Foundation speaks of “shipwrecked by acquisition», who had no choice but to opt for low-cost housing in the face of the cost of real estate. The couple had to sleep in a tent for a year at the start of the work. “First-time buyers access what they can», explains Manuel Domergue.
Substandard housing also sometimes affects social housing, even if it is spared more than private housing. “The average quality of social housing is higher but social landlords are not immune», underlines Manuel Domergue. Half of the reports received in Lyon, however, concern social housing. In total, the State puts forward an estimate of 420,000 substandard housing units present in the territory, whereas for the Foundation, France would rather have 600,000 substandard housing units, even if it is aware of the fragility of the estimates on this subject.
Not just old housing
Why such a difference in appreciation? “The indicator used is that of the potentially unworthy private stock. Overseas should be added, at least 110,000 unworthy housing units out of a total stock of nearly 900,000 housing units (i.e. 12%), unworthy social housing and also premises unsuitable for habitation, not only real housing and the 100,000 people living in makeshift accommodation according to the population census», specifies Manuel Domergue. The treatment of substandard housing is therefore not limited to a stock of old housing to be renovated but also makeshift housing, such as bungalows and mobile homes. “In reality, it is a phenomenon that is perpetually transforming, pushing new segments of the housing stock into indignity. It is the eternal barrel of the Danaids, a tap that always remains open“, he laments.
The Foundation considers the fight against substandard housing to be the poor relation of public action. The National Agency for Housing Improvement (Anah) has awarded in recent years between 13,000 and 15,000 subsidies per year in the fight against substandard housing, 13,752 unsanitary orders are in force in 2021, 578 official work was carried out by the prefect or by the municipality in 2022 and 2,216 safety orders were recorded in 2021. “This means that at the current rate, it would take around forty years to eradicate the simple stock of substandard housing.“, she denounces.
«Governing is first and foremost housing your people and the President of the Republic did not speak of poverty», recalls Christophe Robert, general delegate of the Abbé Pierre Foundation. The only positive point for the Foundation is the bill on substandard housing currently being examined. The National Assembly has just adopted a bill which notably provides for heavier sanctions against slumlords. The Senate will in turn examine it. The Government seems to be interested in the issue of substandard housing. The Prime Minister, Gabriel Attal, declared this Wednesday before the Senate: “Dignified housing is the foundation of a dignified life. We will work on it».
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