Part IV - The reform agenda for recovered sovereignty
7 - Family housing
Access to family housing is the most concrete obstacle to natality and social mobility. A couple renting in 35m² does not have children out of material impossibility, not out of lack of desire. Housing policy is therefore inseparable from natalist policy; the two workstreams mutually reinforce each other in their objective of territorial rebalancing.
Availability, not construction
The Planning Commission defines objectives of family housing availability by department (number, minimum floor area per child, financial accessibility relative to local median income). The objective is availability, not new construction: renovation of existing housing is the solution to prioritize, for economic, environmental, and heritage reasons simultaneously.
The department is endowed with a dedicated budget and is free in its means to achieve the objective (renovation, purchase of vacant housing, agreements with private landlords, construction as a last resort). The municipality remains free in its urban planning choices: no obligation to build imposed from above.
Renovation through CDC subsidized loans
Owners of degraded or under-occupied housing benefit from subsidized loans from the Caisse des Dépôts to finance the works. These loans are not tax exemptions: the money is repaid and returns to the economic circuit to finance new projects. The condition is contractual and non-negotiable: the renovated housing must be put up for rent within the months following completion of the works. If the owner does not comply, the loan switches to the market rate plus a penalty, and in the event of persistent default, seizure of the property is possible.
This mechanism produces multiple simultaneous benefits: family housing made available, unsanitary housing absorbed, activity for craftsmen and construction SMEs, national built heritage maintained. This is circuitist logic applied to housing; each euro invested creates value at each pass.
Coercion on vacant housing
As long as there are homeless people on the national territory, a vacant housing unit is an unacceptable situation. Detection is automatic: fiscal cross-referencing between the cadastral register and water and electricity consumption, with systematic census by the department.
La réponse est graduée. D’abord une taxation progressive de la vacance : plus le logement reste vide, plus la taxe est lourde, jusqu’à rendre la vacance économiquement intenable. Si le propriétaire refuse malgré tout de mettre en location, le département exerce son droit de préemption à prix de marché contraint. En dernier recours, si des sans-abri sont avérés sur le territoire et des logements vacants identifiés, la réquisition s’applique, avec indemnisation du propriétaire mais sans possibilité de refus. L’intérêt national prime sur le droit de propriété absolu.
Specific cases are addressed specifically. Blocked inheritances are subject to an accelerated judicial procedure. Degraded housing benefits from renovation aid conditional on being put up for rent. Secondary residences are subject to vacancy taxation in high-demand areas, but not to requisition, which remains reserved for housing whose vacancy is unexplained in the face of a proven demand.