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Rental evictions: "The end of the winter break is postponed to June 1", announces Emmanuelle Wargon

2021-02-01T19:40:40.252Z


Housing Minister Emmanuelle Wargon announces it exclusively: due to the health crisis, rental evictions are added.


The Minister of Housing, Emmanuelle Wargon, plans to unveil several measures this Tuesday morning, which we are revealing to you exclusively, to fight against the expected surge in evictions following the health crisis.

The end of the winter break has been postponed for two months, the compensation fund for owner-lessors who are victims of unpaid bills will be increased, aid will be harmonized at national rather than departmental level ...

These announcements take place on the sidelines of the presentation of the 26th report of the Abbé Pierre Foundation on “The State of poor housing in France”.

A report where the institution is worried about the "time bomb" that the subject represents.

Because if the number of expulsions has fallen sharply in 2020 due to the extension of the winter break due to the health crisis, the association is already anticipating a catching-up this year.

Cross interview.

The Abbé Pierre Foundation report sounds the alarm on the impact of Covid on poor housing.

Do you plan to postpone the end of the winter break set for April 1?

EMMANUELLE WARGON.

I can tell you that the end of the truce is postponed by two months and will end on June 1 instead of April 1.

This decision to extend also leads to a truce on energy cuts following unpaid heating bills.

This extension is necessary in view of the crisis.

In any case, the police could not handle such a large number of evictions and that would pose a big social problem.

It is important to give households in difficulty a new chance.

It seems essential to me to prioritize and to stagger the evictions while taking care not to evict without a rehousing solution or at least accommodation.

Can we catch up with some cases?

What is the situation of the occupant, of the owner?

What options are possible?

We are thinking about a different management, which no longer relies only on the public force but which is more social.

It is a new prevention system that we must create and put in place.

We are working on it but we need time.

The year 2021 is an exceptional year that we will manage in an exceptional way.

CHRISTOPHE ROBERT.

This extension of the winter break, acquired by Abbé Pierre in 1956, is very good news.

But on the condition of compensating the owners and really making the most of this time to meet people in difficulty, understand where they are, help them open up rights, find a rehousing solution if necessary ... Otherwise, that will only push the deadline back a little.

The report anticipates an explosion in the number of unpaid debts, citing "a time bomb".

Do you share this observation?

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EW

From a health crisis that has become economic, there is a risk of falling into a social crisis.

We are now facing a real risk of households in difficulty dropping out.

For the moment, the latest figures from the Observatory on unpaid rents do not show an explosion but a tension on the number of requests for information.

This does not mean that there is no topic and we are closely monitoring developments.

CR

It is normal that we are not yet witnessing a surge in the number of unpaid bills.

We see it in each crisis: households first do everything to pay their rent because they know full well that otherwise, they engage a gear which is very difficult to extricate.

On the other hand, they make financial trade-offs which have very strong consequences in terms of health, for example.

We see it every day and the mistake would be to wait for unpaid bills to increase.

We must react now and that is why we are asking for the creation of a national fund to help pay rents and charges of 200 million euros.

This new fund would allow the government to harmonize what already exists at the departmental level and to inform the targeted households, still too little aware of the aid available to them.

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Are you in favor of the creation of such a fund to fight bad debts?

EW

We are studying this proposal.

It could be interesting to work more with the departments and the metropolises.

The idea of ​​contractualization is relevant because it makes it possible to harmonize aid and interventions in favor of households in difficulty.

The Foundation's report is particularly alarmist on the number of evictions… What to expect?

CR

The issue of evictions has been poorly treated in our country for a very long time.

Year after year, we are witnessing an increase in evictions with the help of the police.

In 2019, 16,700 households were evicted but it must be understood that there are two to three times more who leave their homes before the police take out the furniture and change the locks.

We are failing because we do not manage to carry out a sufficiently preventive policy.

Last year, thanks to the extension of the winter break and the circular of the ministry taken in the wake, only 3,500 evictions were effective.

At the end of the truce, the risk is therefore that these temporarily suspended evictions will be carried out and add to the volume of annual evictions, which could affect a total of 30,000 households.

VIDEO.

Castex: "One billion euros for the benefit of priority neighborhoods"

A report on the subject has just been submitted to the ministry.

What proposals do you retain?

EW

The deputy Nicolas Démoulin gave me a series of proposals for reducing evictions and intervening in prevention as soon as payment orders are issued, which concern 400,000 households.

Several seem essential to me, such as organizing a better diagnosis and monitoring of fragile households as soon as the order to be paid by the bailiff is received.

Bailiffs must have easy access to common areas in order to transmit their documents and advise families on the procedures and existing assistance.

We need to train building security guards and better coordinate our action with local communities.

Finally, we must much better compensate landlords whose tenant is not evicted because we want to give them a second chance.

At present, this compensation is very unequal according to the departments.

I hope that this compensation will be automated, that it have a harmonized and reassessed budget, and that it comes under my ministry and no longer the Ministry of the Interior.

As of this year, I am committed to working to better compensate owners.

CR

The owners compensation fund must indeed be increased, which rose from 78 million euros in 2005 to 33 million in 2018. But if we want to avoid an explosion of evictions, it is urgent to act now, to seek alternative solutions for households that are at risk.

Source: leparis

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