Eric Zemmour wants to delete the law on HLM quotas, known under the name SRU law (Solidarity and urban renewal). “With the SRU law, we swarm immigration and the problems that accompany it», Affirms the candidate for the presidential election on Europe 1 this Thursday. Passed in 2000, this law imposes on municipalities with more than 3,500 inhabitants (1,500 in Île-de-France) a minimum rate of 25% of social housing or 20% for towns “whose local situation does not justify a strengthening of production obligations“. This obligation was to end in 2025 but last December, the deputies adopted the perpetuation of the system beyond this date, as Emmanuelle Wargon, Minister of Housing wished.
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Behind Eric Zemmour’s proposal hides another highly sensitive issue: social diversity in HLM. The essayist suggests that immigrant households occupy social housing in large numbers. Words that recall those of Marine Le Pen who wants to reserve them as a priority for the French. Gold, according to the latest study published by INSEE on the subject (page 76 of the document), the share of immigrants who are tenants in the social stock has continued to grow – from 28% in 1996 to 34% in 2013 – while that of non-immigrants, which is weaker, stagnates at 15%. In 2013, immigrants numbered 5.8 million. Nearly two million were therefore tenants of HLM at that time. Or 41% of the social rental stock. It remains to be seen how these figures have evolved over the past 8 years.
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The Minister of Housing will certainly not share Eric Zemmour’s position. On the other hand, the social mix in HLMs raises questions. “We must put an end to the ghettos, to the inter-self“, Emmanuelle Wargon let go in December 2020. More recently, we learned that the government sent a circular to the prefects to supervise the construction of new HLM”for the benefit of a diversification of the housing supply». «This measure should help improve the living conditions of our fellow citizens and fight against the feeling of relegation.», Can we read in the written document. The objective is to fight against drug trafficking, incivility and deterioration of apartments, generated by the risk of communitarianism.
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In addition, there is no doubt that Eric Zemmour’s proposal will not fail to satisfy the mayors regularly in the sights of the government because they do not meet their quota objective. To which elected officials often respond that they do not have available land or sufficient financial means. These are the arguments put forward by the mayor of Neuilly-sur-Seine (92) Jean-Christophe Fromantin who won his case with the courts on appeal a year and a half ago. The Minister of Housing had also had trouble with the mayors of Saint-Maur and Saint-Mandé, two towns in Val-de-Marne. A department that knows well Emmanuelle Wargon since she lives there and where the HLM rate is one of the lowest … A shame that had earned her to be ridiculed on social networks.