stray from their assigned route and do not enter the residential communities citing security concerns forcing people to walk to their destinations, including persons with disabilities or those that are elderly. This isolation left them with difficult or long commutes creating serious hardship in finding and maintaining employment and access education. Moreover, individuals with whom I spoke stated that they had faced discrimination when looking for employment based on their address.
9. Financialization
I am concerned that the financialization of housing – where housing is promoted and used as a financial instrument rather than as a social good – will quickly evolve in France, particularly since the promulgation of the ELAN law on 23 November 2018. This law incentivizes the selling off of social housing units, setting a target for newly formed social housing conglomerates to sell 40,000 units a year. A turning point for this new policy for social housing came in late 2018 when the state railway company SNCF auctioned off a 4,000 public housing unit portfolio for 1.5 billion EUR to a group of domestic and foreign investment firms.
France has a growing demand for rental housing, a widening gap between demand and supply, and an acute housing shortage for middle- and low-income families. These characteristics make it an attractive destination for private equity firms who, after the interest shown in the SNCF portfolio, have turned their eyes to the French housing market.
10. Recommendations
(i)When a human right is at stake, it is not acceptable to justify State inaction on the basis of disputes regarding which level of government is responsible - national, regional or local level. The government entity that makes first contact with an individual or group of individuals whose human rights are at stake, must ensure the protection of these rights. Any jurisdictional conflicts can and should be resolved after the necessary protections are implemented.
(ii) The implementation of the DALO law needs to be improved to ensure that all applicants identified as priority for accessing social housing or for rehousing can be offered a decent and affordable home close to their current place of residence within six months, irrespectively where they live in the country. The payment of fines must not replace the effective implementation of the right to housing. While it takes significant time and resources to build social housing, it is imperative that this be made a priority and that other schemes be considered to ensure that those who have been on the DALO priority list for a long time are re-housed immediately.
(iii) I urge the government to move away from emergency and temporary measures to address homelessness, and move towards housing solutions that can provide households with long term stability and dignity, in compliance with the right to housing as elaborated in international human rights law.
(iv) Upgrading informal settlements is a requirement of Goal 11 of the SDGs. The Government of France must ensure security of tenure and access to basic services in all informal settlements. Where upgrading is to take place, this must be undertaken in strict compliance with international human rights law, and in consultation with affected communities. I refer the government to my thematic report on this topic and the recommendations included therein (A/73/310/Rev.1).
(v) France must place a moratorium on all forced evictions. Where evictions are carried out, they must be done in strict compliance with international human rights law.
(vi) With respect to forced evictions in Calais, the Government of France must prohibit the repeated and systematic evictions of persons living in tents and informal settlements resulting in inhuman or degrading treatment. Any evictions must strictly comply with the right to adequate housing under international human rights law, which requires offering sufficient and suitable emergency shelter in reasonable proximity to existing housing and long-term housing options.
