The impact of housing benefit in the Greater Paris - Grand Paris -
As the principal forms of state housing support, personalised housing benefit (Apl), family housing benefit (Alf) and social housing benefit (Als) are intended to ensure that the most modest households can have access and security to decent accommodation by relieving the weight of costs associated to their main residence. These benefits underwent numerous reforms between 2017 and 2021, leading to a reduction in the number of beneficiaries and refocusing support in favour of the most fragile households.
In this context, Apur and the Ctrad analyse how housing benefit improves the financial stability of tenant households in Grand Paris Metropolis. The area has been suffering from a housing crisis characterised by the near doubling of rents in the private housing stock over the past 20 years. 612,000 tenant households receive housing benefit, that is 3 out of every 10, half of whom live in the social sector and half in the private sector.
The average amount of housing benefit is €254 in Grand Paris Metropolis. This ranges from €228 in social housing for an average rent of €385, to €290 in the private sector for an average rent of €657. 23% of tenants in the private stock and 39% in the social stock benefit from this scheme. Households receiving housing benefit are thus able to reduce their rent-to-income ratio, which remains nevertheless high and difficult to maintain for some tenants in the private sector. The most modest households spend 57% of their income on housing after receiving housing benefit. Almost half the beneficiary households in the private sector have a rent-to-income ratio of over 40% even after housing benefit has been paid. In the social stock benefits significantly reduce the rent-to-income ratio, although the remaining income available for living on is generally low. It should be noted that housing benefits are not automatically taken into account when assessing applications for social housing, which restricts access to the social housing for the lowest income households.
Finally the analysis reveals that households face significantly higher rent-to-income ratios in certain municipalities in Grand Paris, similarly to the disparities in income and rent observed throughout the metropolis. In the central and western areas (Paris, Grand Paris Seine Ouest, Paris Ouest La Défense) tenants in the private rental sector have a median rent-to-income ratio of over 40% of their income after receiving housing benefit, whereas for tenants in the north and east of Grand Paris (Plaine Commune, Paris Terres d’Envol, Grand Paris Grand Est) it is below 30%.
