Voted in December 2000 and amended in 2013, the SRU law sets the urban communities
the ambitious objective of having at least 25% of social housing (20% for some of them) by 2025. However, many cities have accumulated a significant delay, with serious consequences. For the 80,000 families (2018 figures) who are waiting for a social housing allocation in the Rhône and the Métropole de Lyon first. Then for the finances of the municipalities.
In 2020, the State thus fined 29 municipalities in the department. Those who have to pay the saltiest slates are found in Greater Lyon [voir le graphique ci-dessous], including Tassin-la-Demi-Lune and Mions: more than 640,000 euros in penalties each.
The penalties settled here have nothing to do with those imposed on certain upscale towns in the Parisian suburbs, such as Saint-Maur-des-Fossés, which wins the cup with a fine of 6.7 million euros. Eleven of the 29 municipalities of the Rhône sanctioned nevertheless exceed the national average (150,460 euros). The money collected by the state will be used to finance the construction of social housing throughout France.
28.2 million euros in penalties over ten years
Along with Sainte-Foy-lès-Lyon, Tassin is the Rhône municipality which has recorded the highest penalties since 2010, i.e. more than 2.7 million euros. [voir le graphique ci-dessous]. If its share of social housing has increased in recent years, the city of Pascal Charmot (LR) has a rate of 14.8% (in 2019), still far from the regulatory 25%. With 11,328 euros in fines (for the years 2020 and 2019), Vernaison is conversely the town that receives the softest penalties.
Between 2010 and 2020, all municipalities combined, the municipalities of the Rhône had to pay 28.2 million euros in penalties for not having respected their legal obligations on social housing [voir le détail ci-dessous, commune par commune]. To give an idea, the sum is equivalent to the construction of two school groups (kindergarten and elementary) such as the new Anne-Sylvestre school, in the 8e district of Lyon.
16 municipalities declared deficient
The spirit of the law being to build social housing and not to collect fines, the legislator granted to the services of the State another prerogative: that of declaring in deficiency the communes not respecting their three-year objectives of catching up in social housing construction. Clearly, those which he believes have not made the necessary efforts. At the end of an adversarial procedure, the prefect can then substantially increase their annual penalties, or even replace the mayor in order to produce social housing.
At the end of the 2017-2019 triennial review, 280 French municipalities were declared deficient. Of which sixteen in the Rhône: Charly, Millery, Saint-Didier-au-Mont-d’Or, Saint-Genis-les-Ollières, Brindas, Oullins, Sainte-Foy-lès-Lyon, Corbas, Genas, Saint-Genis- Laval, Chaponost, Fontaines-sur-Saône, Mions, Grézieu-la-Varenne, Lentilly and Marcy-l’Etoile. From 2021, the penalties paid by these cities will be increased from 10% (Marcy-l’Etoile, Lentilly, Grézieu-la-Varenne) to … 200% (Saint-Genis-les-Ollières, Saint-Didier- au-Mont-d’Or, Millery, Charly).
From 100,000 to 700,000 euros less in the municipal budget … When it amounts to several million, or even tens of millions of euros, the sum may seem derisory. But after a few years of non-compliance with the law, the bill reached significant levels. In the Rhône, nine municipalities had to spend more than one million euros. At the top of the ranking that we established from data from the Ministry of Ecological Transition and data retrieved by the journalist Alexandre Léchenet on the government site Social housing transparency, we find the two bad students Tassin-la-Demi-Lune (2.7 million euros) and Sainte-Foy-lès-Lyon (2.4 million euros). Next, within Greater Lyon, are the towns of Mions (2 million euros), Caluire-et-Cuire (1.3 million euros), Corbas (1.3 million euros) and Oullins (1 , 2 million).
For most of these municipalities, the situation should not improve in the years to come. And for good reason: they are still far from reaching the threshold of 25% of social housing. The penalties nevertheless have the merit of a certain effectiveness since of the 29 municipalities that had to pay in 2020, 22 have increased their share of social housing since 2008 [voir notre graphique ci-dessous]. Despite a mixed record in terms of social diversity, the SRU law has made it possible to increase the production of social housing over the past twenty years. In 2019, in France, 86,300 emerged from the ground. That is 40,000 more than in 1999, before its adoption.
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