Paris: with new social housing in chic neighborhoods, the “rebalancing” is underway
The Parisian municipality has just inaugurated two public housing buildings, just integrated into the very chic 6th and 16th arrondissements of Paris. The opportunity to increase the share of the number of social housing units in these two boroughs which are in deficit.
“Happy and proud to inaugurate these 34 social housing units in the 16th arrondissement today. This 789 m² plot belonged to the uncle of Bashar al-Assad before the City of Paris expropriated it”, welcomed Ian Brossat, the deputy mayor of Paris in charge of housing, this Wednesday 29 June.
Happy and proud to inaugurate today these 34 social housing units in the 16th arrondissement.
This 789 m² plot belonged to Bashar Al Assad’s uncle before the City of Paris expropriated it.
Welcome tenants! pic.twitter.com/MVVmfKW9iV
— Ian Brossat (@IanBrossat) June 29, 2022
A few days earlier, Thursday June 23, the elected communist had already settled for a new building of eight social housing units, built in place of a former police station and located at 16, rue Jean Bart (6th), at 100 meters from the Luxembourg Gardens.
The result of a proactive policy of the Parisian municipality, which – in a context where land is scarce in the capital – does not hesitate to pre-empt buildings for sale as soon as it can, or to jump at an opportunity to buy land that seems interesting to him.
A rebalancing in progress
Another battle horse of this municipality: to act in favor of a rebalancing between the poorest districts and therefore the best received in social housing and the districts of western Paris, historically less well received.
A rebalancing that has borne fruit for ten years, since between 2001 and 2021, the share of social housing has increased from 1.7% in 2001 to 7.3% in 2021 in the 16th, but also from 0, 61% in 2001 to 4.3% in 2021 in the 8th, and from 1.57% in 2001 to 6.2% in 2021 in the 2nd.
On January 1, 2021, it was the 7th arrondissement of Paris which still had the least social housing, with only 2.2% of HLM. But who is not left out, explains Ian Brossat, while a construction operation of more than 250 social housing is underway in the former premises of the Ministry of Defense, on the Saint-Germain island.
Then follow the 6th arrondissement of Paris, with 3.9% of social housing, and the 8th arrondissement, which has 4.3%. At the other end, the 19th, 13th and 20th alone concentrate more than 40% of all Parisian HLMs.
And the elected official would not want us to conflate this, if there is less social housing in the chic districts of the capital, it is above all because land is expensive there and very little available, and not in due to any political reluctance of right-wing mayors, who would not keep having HLMs on their territory.
Proof of this is with the mayor Les Républicains of the 6th arrondissement, Jean-Pierre Lecoq, who told Ian Brossat of the opportunity to build a new building on rue Jean Bart (6th), on land that already belonged to the City of Paris.
“It’s a small stone in the building, but let’s be satisfied,” said the latter, reassured by the fact that it is a construction and not a preemption. The man who has been mayor of the 6th for more than twenty-seven years indeed regrets that we are obliged to “withdraw housing from the private market to make it social housing”, as has been done elsewhere in his arrondissement, in 46, rue Notre-Dame des Champs.
Paris, a good student of the SRU law
Fortunately for Ian Brossat, the SRU law – which since 2000 has forced municipalities to have at least 20% social housing on their land – does not apply, as he reminds us, at the level of the arrondissements, but rather at the the whole of the Parisian territory.
In Paris, where the Parisian municipality has worked to increase from 13% social housing in 2001 to 22.4% in 2021, the City therefore suffers from none. The housing assistant even hopes to achieve his objectives: 25% in 2025, in accordance with the Duflot law, and 30% in 2030.