HLM (
),
FrenchFrench is a Romance language globally spoken by about 65 million people as a first language , by 50 million as a second language, and by about another 200 million people as an acquired foreign language, with significant speakers in 57 countries. Most native speakers of the language live in France,...
for "housing at moderated rents" or "rent-controlled housing", is a form of subsidised housing in
FranceFrance , officially the French Republic , is a country located in Western Europe, with several overseas islands and territories located on other continents. Metropolitan France extends from the Mediterranean Sea to the English Channel and the North Sea, and from the Rhine to the Atlantic Ocean...
. There are approximately four million such residences, housing an estimated fourteen million people — nearly a quarter of the population of France. HLM's constitute 40-50% of all
rentedRenting is an agreement where a payment is made for the temporary use of a good, service or property owned by another person or company. The owner of the good, service or property may be referred to as the lessor and the party paying to use the property as the lessee or renter...
housing in France, and annual government subsidies to the tenants and constructors of HLM residences run to hundreds of millions of
euroThe euro is the official currency of 16 of the 27 Member States of the European Union . The states, known collectively as the Eurozone, are Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Portugal, Slovakia, Slovenia and Spain...
s (according to
Cour des Comptes, the figure in 1992 was 5.43 billion
francThe franc was a former currency of France. Between 1360 and 1641, it was the name of coins worth 1 livre tournois and it remained in common parlance as a term for this amount of money...
s — nearly a billion euros).
HLM (
),
FrenchFrench is a Romance language globally spoken by about 65 million people as a first language , by 50 million as a second language, and by about another 200 million people as an acquired foreign language, with significant speakers in 57 countries. Most native speakers of the language live in France,...
for "housing at moderated rents" or "rent-controlled housing", is a form of subsidised housing in
FranceFrance , officially the French Republic , is a country located in Western Europe, with several overseas islands and territories located on other continents. Metropolitan France extends from the Mediterranean Sea to the English Channel and the North Sea, and from the Rhine to the Atlantic Ocean...
. There are approximately four million such residences, housing an estimated fourteen million people — nearly a quarter of the population of France. HLM's constitute 40-50% of all
rentedRenting is an agreement where a payment is made for the temporary use of a good, service or property owned by another person or company. The owner of the good, service or property may be referred to as the lessor and the party paying to use the property as the lessee or renter...
housing in France, and annual government subsidies to the tenants and constructors of HLM residences run to hundreds of millions of
euroThe euro is the official currency of 16 of the 27 Member States of the European Union . The states, known collectively as the Eurozone, are Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Portugal, Slovakia, Slovenia and Spain...
s (according to
Cour des Comptes, the figure in 1992 was 5.43 billion
francThe franc was a former currency of France. Between 1360 and 1641, it was the name of coins worth 1 livre tournois and it remained in common parlance as a term for this amount of money...
s — nearly a billion euros). While extreme poverty is uncommon in France, the standard of living in the HLM housing projects, often disproportionately inhabited by people of
NorthNorth Africa or Northern Africa is the northernmost region of the African continent, linked by the Sahara to Sub-Saharan Africa.Geopolitically, the UN definition of Northern Africa includes the following seven countries or territories; Algeria, Egypt, Libya, Morocco, Sudan, Tunisia,Mauritania, and...
and
West AfricaWest Africa or Western Africa is the westernmost region of the African continent. Geopolitically, the UN definition of Western Africa includes the following 16 countries distributed over an area of approximately 5 million square km:*Benin...
n descent, is among the lowest in the country, coupled with some of its highest crime rates.
History
The HLM system was created in 1950 in response to France's post-war housing crisis. The low level of construction during and between the two
world warA world war is a war affecting the majority of the world's most powerful and populous nations. World wars span several continents, and last for multiple years...
s, the
rural exodusRural flight is a term used to describe the migratory patterns of peoples from rural areas into urban areas. It often occurs in a region following the mechanization of agriculture when fewer people are needed to bring the same amount of agricultural output to market...
that had started to take place in France — directed mainly at
Île-de-FranceÎle-de-France is one of the twenty-six administrative regions of France, composed mostly of the Paris metropolitan area. Its name literally means "Island of France", maybe from ancient Frankish Liddle Franke, "little France"....
, the region around
ParisParis is the capital of France and the country's most populous city. It is situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
— and the
baby boomA baby boom is any period marked by a greatly increased birth rate. This demographic phenomenon is usually ascribed within certain geographical bounds and when the number of annual births exceeds 2% of the total population size...
, together contributed to a deficit of an estimated four million residences. Eugène Claudius-Petit, the Minister for Reconstruction and Urbanisation, promoted a scheme of massive construction of socially subsidised residences to address this problem. The new system took its foundations from the HBM (
("inexpensive housing")) system which had been created in 1889 and financed mainly by
charitable sourcesIn Christian theology charity, or love , means an unlimited loving-kindness toward all others.The term should not be confused with the more restricted modern use of the word charity to mean benevolent giving....
rather than the
stateA sovereign state is a political association with effective internal and external sovereignty over a geographic area and population which is not dependent on, or subject to any other power or state...
.
Nevertheless, the level of social construction did not significantly rise until minister
Pierre CourantPierre Courant was a French politician. He belonged first to the Independent Republicans and then to the National Centre of Independents and Peasants ....
launched an ambitious plan in 1956, warranted by the increased rate of
immigrationImmigration is the arrival of new individuals into a habitat or population. It is a biological concept and is important in population ecology, differentiated from emigration and migration.-As a political term:...
from France's former
coloniesIn politics and in history, a colony is a territory under the immediate political control of a state. For colonies in antiquity, city-states would often found their own colonies. Some colonies were historically countries, while others were territories without definite statehood from their...
(most notably
AlgeriaAlgeria , officially the People's Democratic Republic of Algeria, is a country located in North Africa. It is the largest country on the Mediterranean sea, the second largest on the African continent and the eleventh-largest country in the world in terms of land area.It is bordered by Tunisia in...
). Courant's plan aimed for the construction of at least 240,000 residences each year, and it was an unexpected success — from 1956 on, there were more than 300,000 new residences built annually, with a good number of them HLM — in 1964, there were 95,000 new HLM apartments. The residences were often constructed in large complexes, by
("the way of the crane"). The new, large apartment buildings were perfectly rectangular, so as to allow a
craneA crane is a lifting machine, generally equipped with a winder , wire ropes or chains and sheaves, that can be used both to lift and lower materials and to move them horizontally. It uses one or more simple machines to create mechanical advantage and thus move loads beyond the normal capability of...
to roll along a track and place components on both sides of the building simultaneously, saving both time and effort.
The greatest increase in the number of HLM's came in the late 1960s and early 1970s, when a great number of
planned communitiesA new town, planned community or planned city is a city, town, or community that was carefully planned from its inception and is typically constructed in a previously undeveloped area. This contrasts with settlements that evolve in a more ad hoc fashion.Navi Mumbai, a planned city near Indian city...
, or ZUP (
: "priority urbanisation zones") were constructed, mostly in the suburbs of
ParisParis is the capital of France and the country's most populous city. It is situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
. A total of 195 ZUP were created, producing over two million new, mostly HLM, residences.
The emphasis then shifted to improving the standard of living in the residences already in existence — in 1968, only 41% of the HLM apartments had toilet and sanitary facilities. By the end of the '70s, this figure had risen to about 80%. New HLM sites with more and more rooms per residence were built in smaller cities and towns, and numerous programmes were launched to combat
povertyPoverty is the condition of lacking basic human needs such as nutrition, clean water, health care, clothing, and shelter because of the inability to afford them. This is also referred to as absolute poverty or destitution...
,
unemploymentUnemployment occurs when a person is available to work and seeking work but currently without work. The prevalence of unemployment is usually measured using the unemployment rate, which is defined as the percentage of those in the labor force who are unemployed...
and
crimeCrime is the breach of one or more rules or laws for which some governing authority, via mechanisms such as police power, may ultimately prescribe a conviction...
in the ZUP communities. In 2001, each HLM residence had, on average, 2.4 persons living in it (compared to 3.2 in 1954), four rooms (three in 1954), and 96% of all HLM apartments had toilet and sanitary facilities, where the figure in 1954 was only 10%.
See also
- ("new town")
- Banlieue
Banlieue is the French word for "outskirts." It comes from the two French words ban and lieue , and thus describes the zone around a city that is under the city's rule...
- Housing Development Board (Singapore)
- Council Housing
The council house is a form of public or social housing, primarily referred to in the United Kingdom. Council houses were built and operated by local councils to supply uncrowded, well built homes on secure tenancies at below market rents to primarily working class people. Council house development...
(UK)
External links
- at Cour des Comptes (in French
French is a Romance language globally spoken by about 65 million people as a first language , by 50 million as a second language, and by about another 200 million people as an acquired foreign language, with significant speakers in 57 countries. Most native speakers of the language live in France,...
)