Public policy and renewal of old housing: The case of Nord-Pas-de-Calais

The rules and laws enforced in France in 1977 regarding the policy of old h ousing renewal have extended public intervention to the whole housing stock built before 1948. It came as a complement to the 1962 Malraux Law which e xclusively concerned old city centres whose architectural value was preserv ed. Has the objective put forward to improve old housing by maintaining the ir residents (tenants and owner occupiers) been reached? The public policy of old housing renewal and its consequences on social occupancy are analyse d in their relation to the ownership structure and to the property strategi es of the actors who finance this rehabilitation. The paper examines Nord-P as-de-Calais, one of the regions in France where the old housing stock is t he lowest in quality. As for the social changes in the occupancy of these n eighbourhoods, our 1995 study confirmed the results obtained in 1988. Four years after the end of the improvement programmes, these neighbourhoods hav e retained a residential function for working-class occupants. However, two new trends emerged. On the one hand, despite a better integration of old h ousing in the policies implemented by local authorities since the 1982-83 d ecentralisation law, the incentive role of state aids to renewal is increas ingly limited. On the other hand, property disinvestment has only been part ially reduced. Some housing units remain unimproved and some buildings rema in unoccupied. The housing supply is higher than the demand. Ownership of o ld housing is undermined by demand for housing estates in suburban areas.