A proposed law against “illegal occupation of housing” contested

It is a text that makes people react. The bill “aimed at protecting dwellings against unlawful occupation”, which must be examined in the National Assembly from Monday, November 28, was criticized on several occasions during a symposium against energy poverty, on November 23 in Paris. Former housing minister of François Hollande, Emmanuelle Cosse thus estimated that he “calls into question ten years of government work on preventing evictions”. And Emmanuelle Wargon, in charge of the same portfolio during Emmanuel Macron’s first five-year term, to engage: “There are only about 200 squats a year. With the latest reform [la loi ASAP de 2020], we have found a balance and we know how to deal with them. And we had been able to contain rental evictions. »

These remarks, the calls to withdraw the text emanating from about fifteen organizations – including the League for the Rights of Man, the Syndicate of the Judiciary and the main tenants’ associations – or the opposition of the deputies on the left do not discourage not the Renaissance deputy Guillaume Kasbarian. If he tabled this bill with Aurore Bergé and many other elected representatives of the presidential majority, it is for ” respond to real distress situations of small landlords, victims of squatters or unpaid rent for several years”. “Since then, I have received some two hundred testimonials”he assures.

The associations are particularly concerned about the adoption, in the law commission, of an amendment carried by deputies Les Républicains (LR), judged “welcome” by Guillaume Kasbarian. “Occupation without right or title, in bad faith, of a residential building belonging to a third party is akin to theft”provides for the new Article 1^er HAS. “This wording would make people who have been squatting in empty accommodation for years, as well as tenants whose leases have been terminated after non-payments, liable to prison terms of three to fifteen years in prison. While currently, only the violation of domicile exposes to a sentence of one year of prison “deciphers the director of studies of the Abbé-Pierre Foundation, Manuel Domergue.

“Maintaining a Balance”

In addition, emergency evacuation by the prefecture, provided for by the ASAP law in the event of violation of residence, could now be requested even if the latter is ” unfurnished “. “It is a question of covering the period before moving in”argues Guillaume Kasbarian. “This makes it possible to extend the notion of home to the more than 3 million vacant homes”believes Ninon Overhoff, head of the From the street to housing department at Secours Catholique.

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