“A landlord police force on the backs of tenants!”: the opposition deplores the creation of a security brigade in Sète to the detriment of the actions carried out by Hérault Logement

L’île de Thau est concernée par le dispositif d’Hérault Logement. – C. F.

To create a new security brigade, the City has chosen not to renew a Hérault Logement scheme allowing for a reduction (30%) of property tax on built properties and the financing of social actions on the Île de Thau.

At the end of November, the City of Sète approved the creation of a trial security brigade for one year, at the foot of the Sète Thau Habitat residences. Which are part of the Inter-Landlord Residential Security Economic Interest Group (GSRI). A brigade intended to “enforcing the internal regulations in these buildings at the end of the day and at night, ensuring peace and quiet and strengthening the security of tenants”. In addition, these rounds will aim to “prevent delinquency and all types of nuisances […], identify technical anomalies in buildings and note the dumping of garbage“.

Removal of the reduction benefiting Hérault Logement

“A militia of landlords”, has already taken it upon herself to summarize the opposition municipal councilor Véronique Calueba. Who, also a departmental elected official, has since dug into the subject. She thus learned that this municipal initiative (cost: €200,000) was being carried out to the detriment of a system which Hérault Logement (the armed wing of the Departmental Council in matters of construction and management of social housing, Editor's note) had been benefiting from since 2001.

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“The creation of this landlord police will be done on the backs of tenants”

In concrete terms, the City has chosen to end the reduction (30%) of property tax on built properties for the benefit of landlords of low-rent housing. A revenue (€185,000) which was then supposed to improve the living environment of residents in the affected neighborhoods (local staff, maintenance, social ties, provision of premises, etc.). “The creation of this landlord police will be done on the backs of Hérault Logement tenants!, deplores Véronique Calueba, who intended to raise the subject at the municipal council meeting this Monday evening.The mayor's number one priority is security. But it's not just the police who can solve problems. We also need living spaces in the neighborhoods, support, diversity, social ties… This is what this system allowed: to put more into the lives of residents.”

“Isn't this a polemical-political position ?”

The City of Sète confirms the removal of the reduction, “non-mandatory system", it specifies, and puts forward several arguments. “This is not a purely budget-saving measure for the city, but a redeployment measure that allows us to test a system (the GSRI) on a priority issue for the residents of the district: tranquility and residential security.” The City adds: “Hérault logement, contacted several times, did not wish to join the GSRI. We would have left the benefit of this exemption if Hérault Logement had agreed to enter the experiment and finance its share of the GSRI, as Sète Thau Habitat will do. For the time being, it is necessary to balance a budget and make choices…"Finally, regarding Véronique Calueba's position, the town hall asks: “Isn't this a polemical-political position” ? In Frontignan, for two years, the mayor has decided to remove the 30% reduction Hérault Logement (around 1,460 housing units, compared to 452 in Sète) for the sake of budgetary savings, fully assuming this, and çit did not seem to trouble them…" The City also states that this suspension is only valid for one year, “épossibly renewable or not", depending on the conclusions that will be drawn from the GSRI's action on the district.

452 housing units, only in the district of the island of Thau

In 2025, the elected official lists, the sum drawn from the reduction was to be used in particular for the development of squares and to support the Concerthau association in its social-cultural projects. “Let them experiment, but at their own expense! Not to the detriment of what Hérault Logement is doing”, insists Véronique Calueba. In Sète, the system affects 452 homes, only in the Île de Thau district.

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