“We are in a situation of very high tension”: the poor housing crisis is worsening in Occitania

Un as, pas si rare, de “logement indigne, dégradé”. Midi Libre – ALEXIS BETHUNE

Following the publication of the national report on poor housing, Sylvie Chamvoux, director of the Occitanie regional agency of the Foundation for Housing for the Disadvantaged, formerly the Abbé Pierre Foundation, takes stock of the situation in Occitanie.

While the conclusions of the thirtieth report on the state of poor housing in France were made public this Tuesday by the Foundation for Housing for the Disadvantaged (formerly the Abbé Pierre Foundation), we will have to wait until the beginning of March to find out those relating to Occitanie.

However, Sylvie Chamvoux, director of the Foundation's regional agency, agreed to lift a corner of the veil on these data for the year 2024, and to draw up an inventory for this territory.

“Compared to the national level, we are generally on the same trend, but in the upper average, both in terms of housing and accommodation. We are in a situation of very high tension, which is felt in a significant way in the metropolises, particularly Montpellier” she indicated in the preamble.

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An unprecedented demand for social housing

Before announcing that the number of applicants for social housing in Occitanie reached an unprecedented threshold in 2024: “We counted more than 200,000 applicants in 2024. 200,000 applications in progress, unsatisfied. These are people who renew these applications each year, but some households end up giving up. We therefore have an underestimated reality compared to the number of households who would need to have access to social housing.”

“One housing allocation for nine applications in Hérault”

And to specify that “more than 70% of the region's inhabitants could, by their income level, be entitled to social housing”. Sylvie Chamvoux also noted a clear “extension of the time between the time when the person submits their application and the time when they can be allocated it. It is in Hérault that the tension is the strongest, with, in 2024, one allocation of housing for every nine applications. And in Montpellier, it goes up to one allocation for every ten applications. These are very strong indicators.”

“A double penalty in substandard housing”

therefore, households that are unable to obtain social housing turn to the private sector. And for them, as the regional director of the Foundation deplores, “it is often a double penalty, especially in an area like the Montpellier metropolitan area, where free market rents are very high: because these households often have access to substandard or dilapidated housing, for which they pay rents much higher than those for social housing. And since they often turn out to be thermal sieves, heating bills are very high. Choices are then made: in these homes, we do not heat, or very little…”

“A flagrant lack of accommodation places”

It remains to mention the most painful cases, “those of households without a solution who sleep in makeshift shelters”. And Sylvie Chamvoux denounces “a flagrant lack of accommodation places in Occitanie. The 115 listeners, every day, from 9 a.m., tell everyone who calls them that there is nothing available, to call back the next day. So we prioritize. To the point of sometimes having to decide between two pregnant women, depending on how far along their respective pregnancies are” she sighs.

While also regretting “a resurgence in rental evictions. During Covid, at the request of the government, there was a stop on evictions. Now it's really started again, especially for those people renting in the private sector and facing very big difficulties financial.”

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