2.7 million households are affected: more and more French people are now waiting for social housing

Moins de 400 000 HLM attribués l’an dernier. Midi Libre – JEAN MICHEL MART

Quelque 100 000 demandes supplémentaires ont été enregistrées sur les six premiers mois de l’année.

The number of French households waiting for social housing continues to grow. 2.7 million households were thus concerned as of June 30, or 100,000 additional requests over the first six months of the year.

A new record, denounced Emmanuelle Cosse, president of the Social Union for Housing (USH), on Wednesday. “This is a demand that is increasing everywhere. This is the same phenomenon as in previous years in all regions and shows how the issue of access to affordable housing remains very important”, stressed the former Minister of Housing during a press conference.

+ 24% in five years

The observation, made two weeks before the HLM organizations congress, scheduled for September 24-26 in Montpellier, is alarming. Because the number of applicants has already increased by 24% in five years.

Emmanuelle Cosse therefore says “worried about its acceleration” in the first half of 2024. Especially since these pending applications mainly concern, she emphasizes, “new groups, who are no longer able to find rental accommodation on the private market".

1.8 million households are waiting for their first social housing and 870,000 are already in HLM, waiting for new housing more suited to their situation.

Soaring credit rates, tightening of borrowing conditions, financial weakening of households suffocated by inflation: bad news has piled up for the French in recent years, sometimes forcing them to give up on becoming homeowners, when they are not also struggling to find affordable rental accommodation.

Not enough construction

Many are therefore turning to social housing, but their number remains largely insufficient. Barely 82,000 to 83,000 social housing units were built in 2023, compared to 120,000 five or six years ago, notes Capital.

First, because elected officials do not always play the game. Then, estimates the USH, because several measures enacted in recent years at the top of the State would rather have contributed to slowing down initiatives (limitation of artificialization of land, increase in VAT on new housing, compensation for the drop in APL, freezing of rents).

This “The deterioration in access to housing” has also been accentuated by a drop in the number of approvals for new social housing, according to Emmanuelle Cosse. While “we should be in 2024 on the same bad trend of 2023”, she deplores.