Marine Le Pen’s housing proposals anger left-wing political figures and associations, in particular the idea of reserving HLM housing for the French, “a xenophobic fad” for Emmanuelle Cosse, who represents social landlords.
For the former environmentalist Minister of Housing, the proposals unveiled on Sunday by the National Rally candidate “talked very little about housing but used the current crisis and designated a scapegoat, immigrants”.
“Foreigners are not favored in entering social housing, there is no favoritism. Their access is even lower compared to French households,” assured the president of the Social Union for Housing (USH), which brings together HLM organizations, during a press conference.
According to the organization, foreigners represent 15% of tenants in the HLM park.
“National preference will not solve the shortage” of social housing, warns the National Housing Confederation, which defends HLM tenants and recalls that nearly 3 million households are waiting for HLM housing. “Making people believe that foreigners are the main culprits for the housing crisis is therefore a lie,” the organization continues in a press release.
“A very serious setback”
During her back-to-school speech, Marine Le Pen promised that housing would be “one of the major projects” of her five-year term, and wanted to “give priority access to social housing to the French” as well as “reserve” personal housing assistance (APL) for them.
Among his other announcements, repealing the SRU law (Solidarity and urban renewal) angers many politicians. Adopted in 2000 to promote the construction of social housing and social diversity, this law requires municipalities with more than 3,500 inhabitants in urban areas (1,500 in the Paris metropolitan area) to have, by 2025, 20% or 25% of social rental housing in their entire stock of main residences.
Abolishing the SRU law “would be an extremely serious step backwards” for Jacques Baudrier, communist deputy in charge of housing at Paris town hall.
According to the latest three-year report, one million social housing units were produced between the introduction of the measure and 2022, or nearly 20% of the current social housing stock.
“Ghettos of the rich”
“Madame Le Pen’s housing policy is the project of creating ghettos for the rich by removing the obligation to create 25% of social housing in all cities,” reacted the leader of France Insoumise Jean-Luc Mélenchon.
Marine Le Pen also wants to evict “delinquent families” from HLM housing, replace MaPrimeRenov› with “a zero-interest loan”, or even remove the “constraints” linked to energy performance diagnostics (DPE).
Proposals “off the mark in relation to current needs” and “apart from the realities of the French”, criticized Emmanuelle Cosse. “If she were in reality, she would talk about rent control and the need to have affordable rents, access to property”, or also “land speculation”, she estimated.
“Xenophobic, ultraliberal, polluting: Marine Le Pen has not changed,” laments Manuel Domergue, director of studies at the Foundation for Housing the Disadvantaged, on LinkedIn.
“An extreme right-wing policy for housing would be a very serious worsening of the housing crisis and a terrible setback for the fight against global warming,” judges Jacques Baudrier.
The priority given by Marine Le Pen to housing “should make all presidential candidates think. What will they say? Are they going to give priority to this subject?” asks the former minister, recalling that housing is the number one item of expenditure for the French and a major purchasing power issue.
“Housing is at the heart of all French divisions,” comments the entourage of Housing Minister Vincent Jeanbrun, hoping without “no doubt” that “the RN deputies will vote” on the government bill aimed at “liberating construction, simplifying projects, trusting mayors to enable the lasting transformation of our territories.”
