This is one of the findings of an INSEE study. Even if it presents extremely significant social contrasts, Lyon is one of the most homogeneous large cities in terms of the distribution of housing. The separation of housing between rich and poor is less strong there than in Lille for example, a phenomenon which is explained, according to two academics, by various factors including urban development and strong income inequalities.
“One of the reasons is that the income gaps are lower in Lyon than in Paris or Marseille”, explains to AFP Jean-Yves Authier, professor of sociology at the University Lumière Lyon 2.
Added to this is the structure of the Lyon real estate market, “admittedly tense” but “much less than the Parisian market”, according to Jean-Yves Authier. Third mitigating factor, the presence “undoubtedly more important social housing in the city center of Lyon” and an urban renewal policy “in the districts of La Duchère, Mermoz or in the popular communes of the East which brings to reduce the share of social housing.
“Extremely important” social contrasts
However, the agglomeration presents “extremely significant social contrasts, both inside Lyon and in the inner suburbs”, recalls Jean-Yves Authier, with a “very clear opposition between the municipalities of the west and the north -west, very bourgeois, and those of the east, much more popular”.
Moreover, if the city occupies an intermediate position between its western and eastern suburbs on the criterion of income, “we do not see the same spatial differentiations appear if we consider the levels of diplomas, Lyon being much more qualified than the entire conurbation,” emphasizes the professor.
According to INSEE, the distribution of the population is also more homogeneous in Lens, Pau, Grenoble or Saint-Etienne.
Lille is less homogeneous
Conversely, in Lille, explains to AFP Yoann Miot, lecturer at Gustave Eiffel University, “from the 19th century, the bourgeoisie, who did not wish to live in working-class neighborhoods so as not to suffer from pollution or out of fear of social unrest, creates his own living quarters like Barbieux in Roubaix, around the racecourse in Lambersart or Marcq-en-Baroeul”. But the collapse of the textile industry from the 1960s and the tertiarization of the economy led to a “casualization of the working classes, especially workers, and ended up excluding the poorest from the traditional housing market to concentrate them in the social park”, argues the researcher.
The key is a concentration of the working classes “in the only place where the market remains accessible, that is to say around Roubaix”. At the same time, the concentration of populations in the richest neighborhoods is “much stronger than that of the poor in the poorest neighborhoods”, with in the suburbs, “housing estates of executives structured around golf courses”. When social housing is built in affluent municipalities such as Bondues, “it is rather households located in the most affluent eligible fringes who will live there, insofar as part of the allocation of social housing remains the prerogative of the municipality “, explains Yoann Miot. In addition to Lille, Marseille, Rouen or even Angers are among the most segregated cities, while the distribution of the population is more homogeneous in Lens, Pau, Grenoble or Saint-Etienne.
(With AFP)
In the cities, rich and poor do not live in the same place
Search for a “between-oneself” for the richest populations, spatial relegation for the poorest… The big cities are the object of a growing segregation of habitat according to income, despite forty years of policy of the city in favor of social diversity. Out of 50 major French cities, spatial disparities by income increased in more than 30 of them between 2004 and 2019, according to a study by INSEE.
“Different neighborhoods in cities tend to specialize in one or another type of income level, and the share of poor populations continues to increase in city policy neighborhoods (QPV) from an already high level” , explains to AFP Mathilde Gerardin, co-author of this study.
“The ghettoization of society has been accentuated with the housing crisis for ten years,” confirms Eddy Jacquemart, of the National Housing Confederation. As indicated above, Lille, Marseille, Rouen or even Angers are among the most segregated cities, while the distribution of the population is more homogeneous in Lyon, Lens, Pau, Grenoble or Saint-Etienne.
“These results constitute a real alert on the logic of residential avoidance of higher social categories and eviction of working classes in neighborhoods in the process of gentrification”, analyzes Yoan Miot, lecturer at Gustave Eiffel University.
The level of segregation is more correlated with the distribution of social housing and income inequalities than with the size or density of cities.
Another observation: the incomes of the most modest are lower than elsewhere in the most segregated cities, while the richest 20% and the poorest 20% live “the most spatially concentrated”.
“The socially mixed neighborhoods are fewer and fewer,” notes Sylvie Fol, professor at Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne.
History of urban development, disconnection between household income and real estate prices, transport services, public policies… The causes of segregation are specific to each city and are still debated.
Some researchers highlight individual choices, with the desire to distance people deemed undesirable. Others explain it by structural mechanisms, such as the spatial recomposition of industrial activities or metropolisation, which concentrates more highly-qualified jobs in the centers of agglomerations.
“At the top of the income scale, the logics of chosen segregation, which correspond to a desire for self-segregation, are stronger, with + golden ghettos + more socially homogeneous than working-class neighborhoods”, observes Antonine Ribardière, mistress conferences at Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne.
Conversely, the construction policy of large housing estates of the 1960s, originally designed to accommodate very diverse populations, was transformed over time into a policy that involuntarily created social segregation. The people leaving the premises, who were better off, were replaced by even more disadvantaged people.
In addition, the municipalities have tended to build social housing “in already disadvantaged neighborhoods, because of the strong intolerance of this housing in privileged neighborhoods”, underlines Sylvie Fol, who sees there “a bottomless pit” and a “mechanism of reproduction of inequalities”.
“This study questions us about how we act,” reacts Anne-Claire Mialot, director general of the National Agency for Urban Renewal, which implements housing improvement programs in QPV. However, it notes “a very strong development to promote diversity in the new urban renewal program launched in 2014”.
“There is a failure of policies to deghettoise poor neighborhoods and force rich neighborhoods to produce social housing”, notes Manuel Domergue, of the Abbé Pierre Foundation, who pleads for a quota of social housing per neighborhood and district and no longer by municipality.
Among the expected effects of this segregation, “a drop in the chances of professional integration, an increase in school segregation or effects on health with sometimes overcrowded housing and poorly equipped with green spaces”, warns Sylvie Fol.
“It’s a real social problem because not all places of residence have the same access to public services,” adds Antonine Ribardière.
(AFP)
