Poor housing: the executive unveils its new 500 million euro plan

Of the the HLM Congress, end of September the Minister Delegate for Cities and Housing, Olivier Klein, had promised a second component for the Housing First plan, which allows homeless people to move from emergency accommodation solutions to permanent housing solutions.

A few days ago, the executive finally unveiled the amount of the envelope devoted to this new plan: 500 million euros over five years, from 2023 to 2027. That is 160 million more than for plan number one, which was spread between 2018 and 2022. And allowed, according to Olivier Klein, “440,000 people to leave the street to access housing”.

Concerns of ociations

The objective is now to “get more than 800,000 people off the streets in ten years”, said the minister on Monday in an interview with “La Croix”. Concretely, the Plan Logement d’abord 2 provides for the creation of 100,000 very social housing units in five years, reserved for the most modest. Olivier Klein, however, did not specify the means to achieve this, in a context where the construction of HLM is at half mast.

It also sets itself the objective of creating 10,000 places in family boarding houses for isolated people in a situation of exclusion. And 35,000 places in rental intermediation. These are dwellings rented by approved ociations in the private sector and under-let at low prices to disadvantaged households, thanks to the schemes Loc’Advantages or Solibail.

Over the previous period, 122,000 homeless people had been able to access an HLM and 7,200 places in boarding houses and 42,000 rental intermediation places had been created. Despite the budget extension, the Housing First Plan 2 does not therefore seem to allow a real increase in power, are already worried by ociations helping homeless or poorly housed people, to whom the new plan will be formally presented on Tuesday.

Congestion of 115

Olivier Klein was also questioned on the fact that despite this device, the number 115 intended for emergency accommodation is more and more congested. “The goal remains to end homelessness, especially for families. But if many people leave the street, others arrive there, in particular because of the economic situation and migratory flows. That’s why we must not let our guard down on emergency accommodation, ”he replied.

During the vote on the previous budget, the government had nevertheless wanted to eliminate 14,000 places emergency accommodation, before giving it up in extremis. This measure having been contested even in the ranks of the majority.

Currently, according to the minister, 203,000 places are open each evening compared to 120,000 in 2017. “A level never reached, even stronger than after the Covid,” he said. But the needs, underline the ociations, have exploded.