Paris Debuts Public Housing in Pricey Landmark

The 96 new apartments unveiled in Paris might have the most stunning location of any public housing in the world. The development of new apartments, all intended for low- to medium-income tenants, is located in the newly renovated La Samaritaine department store, a massive Belle Époque landmark that opened in 1870 on a site overlooking the Seine, barely a few hundred yards from the center of Paris. With generous proportions and balconies with views of the Eiffel Tower, the Sacre Coeur and the Louvre, such apartments would fetch multiple thousands of Euros in rent per month on the private market. But their new tenants are paying an average of 430 euros ($504 USD) in rent for a studio to an average of 929 euros for a three-bedroom unit. The new housing development became possible because the department store has been undergoing reconstruction, freeing up space for extra units in an otherwise fully built-up, carefully preserved section of the city. Antiquated and somewhat dilapidated, La Samaritaine first closed for renovation in 2005. Costing 23.7 million euros to construct, the new housing is part of an ongoing plan from the administration of Mayor Anne Hidalgo: not just to augment the number of affordable homes in the city, but also to prevent further social segregation between high- and low-income areas. The impetus for this drive does not come from Paris City Hall alone. Since 2000, a national Urban Solidarity and Renewal law has stipulated that French cities whose housing stock does not consist of at least 20% public housing must pay a substantial levy. In 2025, this proportion will rise to 25%. As Urban Institute researcher Yonah Freemark concluded in a recent report, the law has been effective in improving access to affordable housing across various French cities, and could serve as a model for the U.S. as well. Paris is attempting to not just meet its percentage target but “rebalance the share of social housing,” as Paris Housing Commissioner Ian Brossat said, so that more public units become available in the city’s wealthier west. This drive has already produced some results. As well as the 96 units at La Samaritaine, the city launched two new housing complexes in December 2020, one next to the Luxembourg Gardens and the other in the exclusive 16th arrondissement, on a site expropriated from the uncle of Syrian president Bashar al-Assad. Resolving Paris’ affordability problems nonetheless remains a challenging goal. In December 2020, 260,000 people remained on Paris’ waiting list for public housing, while limited space for building means that the city’s cost per square meter for a new dwelling is higher than any other major city in Europe. Given the level of need, the number of new public units appearing in pricier quarters of the city could be considered mostly symbolic. The public tenants moving into new apartments in La Samaritaine constitute a lucky handful.