The H&H06 Association was created on October 10, 1992, by 3 legal entities and 13 individuals. HH 06 was established in 1992, following a meeting with Bernard Devert, founder in 1985 of Habitat & Humanism. In view of the respective vocations of this movement and this already operational departmental system, the team’s adhesion came naturally. 20 years later, it passes the torch to a new team that will concern itself with continuity in innovation.
Habitat et Humanisme 06: A Summary of History
The adventure: firmly embedded in institutions that have acquired expertise and departmental notoriety, its scope encompassed all components of a visionary social housing policy. Proposed to departmental authorities to address the challenges of an urgent issue: building, renovating, or renting apartments intended for the neediest and supporting families in housing integration.
The system: thus were created the ALAM (Housing Association of Alpes-Maritimes (11 founding associations in 1988), which manages the FSL, the SOHLAM (Habitat Housing Company Alpes-Maritimes, owner of 279 dwellings + 1 social residence) in 1991 and AGIS 06 (Social Real Estate Management Agency) in 1995; all strongly financed by public funds. And in total coherence, as they are managed by the same team.
In 20 years, SOHLAM (20 founding associations including HH) has produced 279 dwellings; AGIS 06 currently manages nearly 900 apartments, half of which are intended for RSA beneficiaries today, and ALAM today brings together 9 associations in charge of social housing.
First phase of activities: two conferences (“Seeing the city differently” then “Living the city differently”), followed by a White Paper in 2005 and the action “Living in the city,” supported by public funds between 1993 and 2005, were opportunities to raise public awareness and develop the support of families housed in social diversity, in partnership (professionals and volunteers) with ALC, Actes, and CAF. 24 scattered apartments, mainly in Nice, are thus entrusted for rental management to AGIS 06.
Second phase of activities 2002: HH 06 embarks on the collective, with the acquisition by the Fonciรจre du Mas du Calme in Grasse (social residence of 34 studios, entrusted to API Provence for social and rental management). A willingness to partner with all actors in social housing is affirmed. It is found in a second collective project: the relay house of La Trinitรฉ which includes a unit of 15 dwellings on the heights of Nice + 3 grouped dwellings on rue d’Utelle. And in a house bought from the State and rehabilitated, route de Nice to Antibes, for the housing of 6 people and families leaving the accommodation structures of Antibes associations grouped in a solidarity collective: CSA.
Third phase of activities: social innovation, advocated by the Federation H&H, results in the purchase, for its renovation, of a real estate complex in Grasse, a former women’s hostel belonging to a congregation, to create an “intergenerational house”: 10 non-dependent elderly people and 9 families in activity or job search, with very modest incomes, will cohabit and co-animate this significant residential complex, which will even include a restaurant open to the public, creative workshops, and a large associative room. On another innovative level, through its construction and interior and exterior layout choices, an original realization will emerge in 2013, on the territory of the municipality of Peymeinade, which grants H&H a suitable plot of land. But it is mainly on a social level that the innovation is recognized, with the labeling for HQS (High Social Quality) in sight.
The new challenges: building new and rehabilitating the old, again and always.
But also: convincing property owners of vacant housing to rent them to benefit disadvantaged families (through financial and tax incentives), convincing municipalities and developers to reserve reasonable capacities for very social housing, convincing our fellow citizens of the unsuspected wealth that lies in new ways of living together and in good neighborliness
are as many challenges that will allow us to write a new page of our history.
