The directors of 150 HLM offices across France are meeting in Dijon this weekend to design the social housing of the future. Christophe Bérion, the director of Orvitis takes stock of what exists and what is planned in Côte-d’Or
France Bleu Bourgogne: How long on average do you have to wait to obtain low-cost housing in Dijon?
Christophe Bérion: It all depends on the neighborhood in the metropolis, but it’s between two to three years of waiting for social housing. Today, almost 9,000 requests are pending in the metropolis,
Does that mean that more social housing is needed in the department?
We need more housing because today the family is changing. There are many changes, especially in terms of aging, in terms of separations. So structurally, we have homes that are occupied by fewer people and for longer, so more homes are needed to house everyone.
The image of HLM housing consists of bars of buildings, sometimes aging, sometimes bordering on insalubrity. What is the priority for the future? Are we renovating what already exists? Or do we destroy everything and build something new?
No, that would be too simple. Today, the stakes are multiple. We of course try to favor rehabilitation because that is a social issue. When we can today, we structurally improve the building of the 1970s when it exists and we try to adapt it in relation to the aging of a population, in relation to much younger profiles. So, we are mainly working on the typology of these dwellings which were originally large dwellings, T4, T5 to accommodate families. Today, we will rather work on T2 and T3 to respond more to these issues related in particular to these single-parent families or these people who are aging.
The inhabitants plead so that we stop with the big bars of buildings, that we build housing of two or three floors. There, you talk to us about the size of the apartments, but with regard to the size of the buildings, what are we headed for?
It is the town planning rules that today determine the volume of these buildings. But it is quite obvious that what we are trying to avoid today is to start over what we have known in these large complexes, that is to say the concentrations of buildings that were inhuman and in which we have difficulties in relation to the social bond. So today, it is rather small buildings, around 30 units. This is the ideal size to also allow living together and thus improve the bond in these accommodations.
Are all the municipalities playing the social housing game in Côte-d’Or? In 2017, the municipalities of Marsannay-la-Côte and Fontaine-lès-Dijon were singled out. Has the situation evolved?
Yes, yes, absolutely. There is a real proactive policy of these municipalities today to meet these needs of housing the population, and in particular in terms of social housing. Today we have a lot of real estate programs in these two towns and especially in Fontaine-lès-Dijon, which were a little behind schedule. And so, we can say today that these municipalities are completely playing the game.
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