Gathered at the Intercommunalités de France congress in Orléans, local elected officials are concerned about the housing situation in the villages, between loss of inhabitants and lack of investment.
With sometimes entire streets of vacant housing, an insufficient number of social housing and “uninterested” developers, rural areas are not immune to the housing crisis plaguing the metropolises.
While the government plans to present a bill in the spring on the decentralization of housing policy and wishes to give more power to local elected officials, the latter met at the Intercommunalités de France congress, which was held at CO’Met in Orléans from October 11 to 13, and where the subject resonated strongly.
“Today we no longer have any housing supply and there is very little movement because there is nothing vacant anymore.“, testifies Renaud Averly, president of the community of communes of the Rethélois region (Ardennes), 40 km north of Reims. According to elected official DVD, who spoke this Friday at the congress, neither young couples looking for a house with garden, nor the elderly who would like to be closer to towns and shops find what they are looking for today.
To move the lines, its community of municipalities has put the package into financing work to adapt housing to aging. “We are installing walk-in showers and stair lifts. This makes it possible to keep elderly people at home but also to adapt housing in the town center, therefore attracting elderly people.“, explains Renaud Averly.
About fifty kilometers further north, Miguel Leroy, mayor of Auvillers-les-Forges, a village of 900 inhabitants near the Belgian border, draws a similar observation:
We are in a very, very rural area which does not interest developers. HLM organizations were present in the 1980s but are no longer there. However, if we do not want to lose too much population, we will have to offer housing because the number of people per household is decreasing.
Miguel Leroy, mayor of Auvillers-les-Forges
In addition to aid for housing renovation, the man who is also president of the Ardennes Thiérache community of communes is now tackling empty housing. Especially since the objective of “zero net artificialization of soils” enshrined in the law marks the end of the residential urbanization model, accused of concreting the soils.
“We will no longer be able to spread out indefinitely by building houses along the roads. We have 8% vacant housing with rates sometimes going up to 25% and entire streets empty of residents.“, continues Miguel Leroy, who contacted all the owners”one by one” to understand why their accommodation remained unoccupied and know how to support them.
Half reported problems with work to be carried out with leftovers to pay.difficult to finance, or to pass on to future rents“. In 16% of cases, the home remains empty due to conflicts between heirs against a backdrop of a sluggish real estate market.
In Central Brittany, Sandra Le Nouvel, DVG president of the community of communes of Kreiz Breizh located “far from any urban influence“, also notes “a blockage at each level of the housing chain“. In three terms as mayor, she says she has not “never had a meeting with a promoter“and have only obtained from donors”ten social housing units“while the home for young workers in Rostrenen, the most populated municipality, is”completely full“.
Elected officials agree on the need to develop villages to make them more attractive to future buyers. “Operations to beautify town centers, particularly through renaturation, are a real lever for private investment“, assures Jérôme Baloge (PR), mayor of Niort. As for the pavilion, “we are not going to do without it overnight, he admits, but maybe he’ll take a floor“.
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