The Abbé Pierre Foundation (FAP) revealed its annual report on Wednesday regarding the state of inadequate housing in France, and the least that can be said is that the situation in the Alpes-Maritimes seems concerning.
In France, 14.5 million people are weakened by the housing crisis, 4.1 million people are living in inadequate housing, and 300,000 are homeless, the FAB reveals. In its report, it describes housing as the “poor relation of the five-year term,” even though it welcomes the creation of the Housing First program (LDA) aimed at finding housing for the homeless.
Nice in the FAP’s sights
Regarding the capital of the French Riviera, the Abbé Pierre Foundation primarily highlighted its non-compliance with the SRU law (Solidarity and Urban Renewal), which mandates a minimum of 25% social housing in the area. With 13% social housing, it achieved “only 2% of its 2017-2019 triennial objective.”
“However, this does not mean that the more strained sectors are not showing initiatives, even if these remain ‘corseted’ by a rare and limited supply. The case of Nice appears quite representative of the issues generally facing well-meaning stakeholders, with achievements still hindered by institutional logic and the constraints of an increasingly rare accessible housing stock,” clarifies the FAP in its report, speaking about the LDA program.
In the Alpes-Maritimes, the situation is hardly better than in Nice since only 13 out of 194 communes comply with the SRU law.
Among the solutions mentioned, the FAP suggests bringing vacant housing back onto the market—there are 18,500 such properties in the Alpes-Maritimes. Another solution could be the rehabilitation of abandoned buildings, which avoids the need to construct new ones.
