This article uses data from the 2006 Housing survey to calculate the benefit in kind that the occupation of social housing represents, and the use that beneficiary households make of it. It is based on a comparison between the actual situation of these households and the hypothetical situation they would have been in if they had had to remain in private dwellings. The monthly monetary advantage of occupying a low-cost dwelling corresponds to the difference between the rent demanded by the social landlord and the value of this same dwelling in the private rental market at the moment of occupation. In 2006 this subsidy stood at €261 on average. The characteristics of the dwellings occupied are different to those of the dwellings that the same households would have occupied in the private market. They are larger (+2.5 square metres) but located in poorer areas. Additionally, social tenants less frequently occupy houses (-15.4 percentage points). All characteristics taken together, access to the low-cost housing stock results in an increase of €34 in the monthly rental value of the dwelling occupied. There is thus a 227-euro differential with the subsidy, to the benefit of standard of living excluding housing. It is used to increase savings and consume other goods. We also find that the occupation of a low-cost dwelling does not lead to housing overconsumption: the value of the social dwelling allocated by the government does not differ significantly from the value that the household would have chosen if it could have freely distributed the advantage of occupying a low-cost dwelling between housing and consumption of other goods. These findings are amplified among social tenants in the Paris region, where the implicit monthly subsidy stood at €394 on average. They also confirm that social housing does not only benefit the most modest households.