HLM quotas: social landlords ask government to ‘leave the SRU law’

The Social Housing Union (USH), a confederation of social landlords, on Wednesday asked the government to refrain from reforming, as it intends, the SRU law that sets quotas for social housing in cities. “The HLM movement, with responsibility and seriousness, asks the government not to touch the SRU law,” USH President Emmanuelle Causs said in a press release.

“The housing crisis that our country is experiencing today requires different answers, a different fight than questioning what works. Those few mayors who deliberately stand outside the law, without taking responsibility for national unity, definitely do not deserve such a gift,” continues the former minister.

Passed in 2000, the SRU (Solidarity and Urban Renewal) law imposes a quota of 20 to 25% social housing on cities. But Prime Minister Gabriel Attal has vowed to reform it to include intermediate housing, with higher rents and income ceilings than social housing. The outlines of the reform that should be included in the bill “on housing for the middle class,” expected before the summer, have not been specified.

Two thirds of municipalities fail to meet targets

“There is no taboo in adjusting the SRU law,” Minister Delegate for Housing Guillaume Kasbarian said in mid-March, recalling that it had already been changed several times. “We will always have in the law on SRU the goal of stimulating and objectifying the construction of social housing,” he promised, however.

“The SRU Act has certainly evolved, always towards fairer application and a renewed commitment to social diversity. Until now, no significant measure has called into question its scale, on the contrary,” social landlords object. According to USH, 2.6 million households are waiting for social housing, a record.

Between 2020 and 2022, almost two thirds of the municipalities affected by the SRU law did not achieve their social housing production targets, and some, such as Nice, Boulogne-Billancourt (Haute-Seine) or Toulon, were even very far away.

In February, right-wing mayors, including those of Nice, Reims, Aix-en-Provence and Nîmes, asked in an open letter to Guillaume Kasbarian published in JDD to “start a peaceful debate without any complaints about the SRU law.” “, described as “an insult to common sense”.