France: Access to social housing for low-income households (June 2020)

• Report on the difficulties of access to the social stock of low-income households in France

• Published by a collective of six NGOs (le Secours Catholique, ATD Quart Monde, Habitat et Humanisme, la Fondation Abbé Pierre, l’Association DALO) on 23 June 2020

• https://www.atd-quartmonde.fr/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/2020-RAPPORT-ACCES-AU-LOGEMENT-SOCIAL.pdf

• Summary:

  • This report combines statistical analyses, interviews with different actors, case analyses, and focuses on low-income household's access to social housing in France.

  • The report notes that in France, the lower the household's income, the less likely it is for that household to obtain social housing.

  • In some areas, tens of thousands of households without housing or poorly housed remain on hold due to a lack of affordable social housing.

  • Attempts by the public authorities to fight this issue and ensure access to social housing for the poorest, whether they come in a form of binding rules (such as the obligation - often not respected - to allocate 25 per cent of housing stock to the lowest-income households) or incentives (authorization - not used - to change rents), remain without notable effect.

• Keywords: France, low-income households, right to housing, social housing, discrimination, poor housing.