Housing Disadvantaged People?: Insiders and Outsiders in French Social Housing

by Ball; Jane

• ISBN13: 9780415554459
• ISBN10: 0415554454
• Format: Nonspecific Binding
• Copyright: 2011-11-11
• Publisher: Routledge

Summary

Social housing appears to offer a solution for the housing of poor and disadvantaged people. The French "right to housing" offers poor and disadvantaged citizens priority in social housing allocation, and even a legal action against the State to obtain a social home. Despite this, France is suffering a long-lasting housing crisis with disadvantaged people having particular difficulties of access, often despite the efforts of local housing actors. This situation is affected by the European Court of Human Rights and EU decisions limiting diverse national housing and rental policies. Between historic French revolutions and the modern riots, negotiated solutions to social dilemmas emerged. Despite progress in constitutional principles, complex local negotiations still ultimately determine who is housed. Local social landlords, mayors and employee and tenant representatives use their privileges to house their insiders: existing tenants, locals and employees, with rent insufficiently subsidized. '¬ÜInsider Outsider'¬" theory is used for an economic analysis of exclusion in social housing allocation: its processes, institutional context, and stigmatizing effects. This highlights the spatial effects of nimbyism, excluding disadvantaged outsiders, and concentrating them in deprived areas. Simultaneously, urban regeneration reduced affordable housing stock and '¬Üsocial mix'¬" became a reason to refuse a social home. History, comparative law, economic theory and local interviews with housing actors give a detailed picture of what happens in and around French social housing allocation for an interdisciplinary housing policy audience. Constitutional principles appear in an unfamiliar guise as negotiating positions, with the "right to property" supporting landlords and the "right to housing" supporting tenants. French debates about the function of social landlords are echoed across Europe and reflected in European policies concerning rights, and the exclusion of disadvantaged minorities.

Author Biography

Jane Ball was a lecturer in French law, property law and contract law at the University of Sheffield. After 14 years in English legal practice she spent another 14 years researching the French housing scene, using an applied mix of public and private law, economic theory and empirical study. She has been a lecturer at Newcastle University since 2011.

Table of Contents

List of tables	p. viii
List of figures	p. ix
Acknowledgements	p. x
Glossary of abbreviations	p. xi
Introduction	p. 1
Social housing and Europe	p. 2
A failing potential to house the disadvantaged	p. 3
French social housing in a history of conflict	p. 5
Insider-outsider theory	p. 6
Investigating exclusion and inclusion	p. 7
Social landlords and insider-outsider theory	p. 9
Introducing French social housing actors	p. 10
Introducing social housing allocation	p. 16
Why insider-outsider theory is relevant	p. 18
Insider-outsider theory	p. 22
Conclusion	p. 33
Exploring the function of social housing	p. 35
European social housing	p. 35
Disadvantage in French social housing	p. 46
Formulating this study	p. 50
Conclusion	p. 56
The historical context: from revolution to rights	p. 58
From revolution to rights	p. 59
The opposition between property and social rights	p. 63
Social housing and its context	p. 72
Conclusion	p. 83
The right to housing in context	p. 84
The legal effects of the right to housing	p. 85
The right to housing and social mix	p. 98
Contrasting approaches in France	p. 105
Conclusion	p. 110
Complex institutions in the grip of change	p. 112
Housing actors in the context of decentralization	p. 113
Planning, construction and contractualization	p. 123
Contracting for divergence	p. 127
Conclusion	p. 134
Social landlords and their financing problems	p. 136
HLM organizations	p. 137
Insider-outsider theory and rent	p. 143
Aids to the person and rents	p. 145
Construction funding and rents	p. 148
Taxation advantages	p. 155
Conclusion	p. 156
The social housing allocation process	p. 158
Allocation criteria and demand	p. 159
Varying regional institutions	p. 166
The procedure	p. 171
The allocation commission	p. 178
Conclusion	p. 180
'Insiderness' and local actors	p. 183
Applying insider-outsider theory	p. 184
Insiders	p. 191
Entrants' chances of success	p. 199
Conclusion	p. 202
Stigmatization and outsiders	p. 203
Which groups tended to be excluded?	p. 204
Debt and eviction	p. 206
Household instability and domestic violence	p. 208
Ethnic minorities and young people	p. 210
Reviewing exclusionary processes	p. 221
Conclusion	p. 226
Housing some of the disadvantaged	p. 228
An exclusionary legal process	p. 229
'Insiderness' in social housing	p. 235
Transparency	p. 241
Social housing and Europe	p. 244
Reform	p. 251
Conclusion	p. 253
methodological detail	p. 257
Legal considerations	p. 257
Survey method and questions	p. 259
Factors taken into account	p. 259
The questions asked	p. 260
allocation principles	p. 279
Notes	p. 281
Bibliography	p. 305
Index	p. 322
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