Editing Public housing (section)

=== France ===
{{Main|Public housing in France|HLM}}
[[File:Paris13 HBM-rueJeanFautrier.jpg|thumb|Public housing of the {{lang|fr|rue Jean Fautrier}} in the [[13th arrondissement of Paris]].|alt=]]

After [[World War II]], the population increased at a rate previously unknown, the rural exodus increased, while war damage had reduced the number of houses in many cities. Rental prices dramatically rose, and the government made a law in 1948 to block them, effectively ending the economic benefits of housing investment. Rents were gradually deregulated until debate in the 1980s led to the current rental law of 1989 theoretically balancing landlord and tenant relations. However, there was a major homelessness crisis in the winter of 1953–4 and the necessary laws were gradually mobilized producing high levels of construction almost continuously from the 1960s. Social landlords were a major source of expertise as well as construction actors with links to national and local bodies.<ref name="Jean-Marc Stébé 1998">{{cite book |author=Jean-Marc Stébé |date=1998 |title=Le logement social en France |trans-title=Social housing in France |location=Paris |publisher=[[Presses Universitaires de France]] }}</ref> The construction industry was at the time inadequate so political support was needed.

It is incorrect to refer to French social housing as public housing. The origins of French social housing lie in the private sector, with the first State aid provided to limited-profit companies by the {{lang|fr|loi Siegfried}} in 1894. The originally socialist idea was promoted by some French employers in the 2nd half of the 19th century. Public housing companies followed before World War I.<ref name="Jean-Marc Stébé 1998"/> There are still different social housing movements, public, private and some cooperative.  Social landlord organizations all have similar regulation and similar access to government loans but there are significant differences.<ref>Much is found in the {{lang|fr|Code de la Construction et de l'Habitation}} (the Building and Housing Code), Book IV (with social housing allocation and funding elsewhere in the Code).</ref>

The government launched a series of major construction plans, including the creation of [[new town]]s ({{lang|fr|villes nouvelles}}) and new suburbs with [[HLM]] ({{lang|fr|Habitation à Loyer Modéré}}, "low-rent housing"). The state had the funds and [[eminent domain|the legal means to acquire the land]] and could provide some advantages to the companies that then built its huge housing complexes of hundreds of apartments. Quality was also effectively regulated, resulting in decent or even top quality housing for the standard of the 1950s and 1960s. The construction of HLMs were subject to much political debate. Much smaller developments are now the norm. This housing is now generally referred to as {{lang|fr|l'habitat social}}, a slightly wider sphere than just housing.

France still retains this system, a recent law making it an obligation for every town to have at least 20% HLM. Nowadays HLM represents roughly half of the rental market (46% in 2006).<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.developpement-durable.gouv.fr/IMG/pdf/donnees_chiffrees.pdf |title=Quelques données chiffrées sur le parc locatif privé |trans-title=Some data on the private rental market |access-date=22 November 2012 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130603095252/http://www.developpement-durable.gouv.fr/IMG/pdf/donnees_chiffrees.pdf |archive-date=3 June 2013 |df=dmy-all }}</ref> Social housing is not all for disadvantaged people who are just one of the target groups. Part of the funding can be provided by employer-employee groups to provide housing for local employees. The 20% target can include intermediate housing for better off groups, although its object is to produce social mix.<ref>{{cite journal |author=Maurice Blanc |title=The Impact of Social Mix Policies in France |journal=Housing Studies |date=March 2010 |volume=25 |issue=2 |pages=257–272 |doi=10.1080/02673030903562923 |s2cid=153808294 }}</ref> Gentrification and the very basis of social housing allocation are divisive issues as well as the extent of local control of housing.<ref>{{cite book |author=Jane Ball |year=2012 |title=Housing Disadvantaged People? Insiders and Outsiders in French Social Housing Allocation |location=London |publisher=Routledge }}</ref> This housing has always been a multi-actor activity and recent local government reorganization continues to change the political landscape.

While they succeeded in giving lower-income families a place to live in the drive to provide popular housing, this system also led to the creation of suburban ghettos, with a problem of disrepair. There has been a long-term problem of gradual impoverishment of social tenants<ref>{{Cite book |author1=Michel Amzallag |author2=Claude Taffin |year=2003 |title=Le Logement Social |trans-title=Social Housing |location=Paris |publisher=[[LGDJ]] }}</ref> There, deprived strata of the population, mostly of immigrant origin and suffering massive under-employment, might in the past have been left to simmer away from the more affluent urban centres, sometimes becoming rife with social tensions and violence. This affects a minority of social housing but has a high profile and still produces serious tension.

Tackling this problem at its roots is all but simple, and social mix policies can break up populations seen as difficult by redevelopment. This has not had the hoped for results. It has also been sought to resolve the problem of access to the system by disadvantaged people by a new system where certain groups can apply to court to be housed if refused, the "right to housing".  This tends to intensify the controversy over social housing allocation, who should be housed.<ref>{{cite journal |title=Noémie Houard (coord.)&thinsp;: ''Loger l'Europe. Le logement social dans tous ses États'' |trans-title=Noémie Houard (editor): Housing Europe. Social housing in all its countries |author=Frédérique Chave |date=December 2013 |journal=Revue des politiques sociales et familiales |issue=114 |pages=92–94 |url=https://www.persee.fr/doc/caf_2101-8081_2013_num_114_1_2958_t11_0092_0000_2 |access-date=14 August 2015 |archive-date=15 June 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190615092443/https://www.persee.fr/doc/caf_2101-8081_2013_num_114_1_2958_t11_0092_0000_2 |url-status=live }}</ref> The French tradition of 'universal' social housing allocation – housing for everyone is called into question by [[EU competition law]] restricting subsidy except for the disadvantaged. In any event, the system is certainly effective in producing construction, although not with the excesses seen in the [[European debt crisis|recent credit crunch]] elsewhere.{{Citation needed|date=June 2008}}