HLM: Unpaid rent rises

Soaring energy prices, inflation more than 6% per year… Many social landlords have recorded an increase in unpaid rent in 2022, the Social Union of Housing (USH) said on Monday. USH, which represents HLM landlords, conducted a December 2022 survey of 193 organizations covering 2.26 million social housing units, or 47% of the HLM fund.

The exact timing of the investigation and its exact results were not disclosed, but the USH attributes this surge to rising energy prices. “Almost half” of social landlords who responded recorded a significant increase (more than 10%) compared to December 2021 in the number of tenants who accumulated more than three months of unpaid rent, the USH said.

An “incomplete” tariff shield, according to Emmanuelle Cosse, president of USH.

“Two-thirds of the responding HLM organizations recorded an increase in the number of households experiencing financial difficulties. Just as many say they have felt the warning signs of financial hardship,” she adds. USH is also announcing that it will conduct quarterly surveys of unpaid rent in 2023 to better quantify the phenomenon.

“Unfortunately, an increase in financial hardship for tenants has been announced given the very incomplete nature of the tariff shield the government has put in place for people collectively heated by gas and electricity,” says USH President Emmanuel Pod. The former housing minister has been calling since autumn for the tariff shield to limit rising energy prices to be extended to all social landlords, and has only partially won the case.

HLM organizations fear the consequences of the payment streamlining, which could be a painful bill, for their tenants, 35% of whom live below the poverty line.