The occupation of social dwellings: Results from the Housing Surveys

The concern of this paper, relating to social housing, is twofold. First, to what extent do households living in social dwellings belong to the most needy section of the population ? Second, are a substantial fraction of social dwellings under- or over-crowded ? In 2002, households in the four highest standardized income deciles amount to 20 pc. of social housing residents. This proportion, albeit not negligible, is lower than ever (30 pc in 1984). High income social housing residents enjoy on average much better housing conditions than poor ones. Nor do the former live in the same districts as the latter. The number of severely under-crowded social dwellings ranges from 650,000 to 800,000 (according to the crowding indicator), and in the meantime the number of over-crowded ones ranges from 430,000 to 830,000. A large fraction of the under-crowded dwelling units are inhabited by small-size elderly households. The prevalence of under-crowding does not vary much according to city size, whereas overcrowding, which hits mostly families with dependent children, displays a high prevalence in large cities. Overcrowding is associated to low standardized income and unsatisfactory housing conditions