And ten. Since the start of the year, Toulon has had two new “QPVs”: priority districts of the city’s policy. This “label” created by the State ten years ago will allow these sectors to benefit from additional resources, with the objective of reducing existing inequalities and development gaps with other territories.
La Rode and Saint-Jean-du-Var were thus added to Beaucaire, Florane, Pontcarral, Pont-du-Las/Rodeilhac, Beaulieu/Sainte-Marie, Sainte-Musse, the city center and Jonquet/ Baume/Guynemer. Based on concrete socio-economic indicators, collected by the Toulon and Var urban planning agency (Audat), this choice owes nothing to chance. Explanations.
A habitat that raises questions
In La Rode, the QPV is limited to the six large buildings corresponding to the social housing groups, along the entrance to the town. There are 472 HLM apartments for 1,000 inhabitants located in these bird-named buildings, built between 1975 and 1978, on the site of a former slum. Notable situation: more than 60% of housing there is identified as under-occupied.
The QPV of Saint-Jean-du-Var, organized around Boulevard Maréchal-Joffre, is very different. The area concerned, which has long been in the sights of public policies, includes around 2,500 inhabitants. For half of them, the housing dates from before 1946, and includes a good number of unworthy dwellings. In 67% of cases, they are occupied by tenants from the private sector.
Schools… but no diploma
The residential district of Rode includes two school groups: Claude-Debussy and Le Brusquet (on the other side of the expressway). Despite a social position index (IPS) significantly lower than the average for the entire metropolis for the two establishments, the Debussy school is not classified in the Priority Education Network (REP). An anomaly that “city policy” could correct.
Furthermore, among the residents of Rode who have completed their schooling, more than half do not have a diploma. This proportion is much higher than the average found in other priority neighborhoods (43%).
The elementary school of Saint-Jean-du-Var is also not in REP, despite a 302nd place out of 324 in the IPS index ranking of Var primary schools. The same goes for Voltaire College and its 481 students.
A fragile population
La Rode is the Toulon QPV where the weight of seniors is the greatest and where single women are “overrepresented” (58%), according to Audat. A quarter of households are therefore made up of a woman aged 60 or over living alone.
Note that the share of foreigners is low compared to what is measured in the other QPVs: only 7% of Rode residents do not have French nationality.
Saint-Jean-du-Var has experienced very strong demographic growth in a short period of time, with its population increasing (and getting younger) at a rate of 2.8% each year. Many households have recently settled there. Thus, 53% of them have lived in their home for less than five years.
The share of immigrants or foreigners is greater than that measured in the priority area of the western suburb of Toulon, Pont-du-Las/Rodeilhac.
A fairly low activity rate
Among the 15-64 year olds who live in La Rode, the share of employed workers (42%) is significantly lower than the Toulon average (60%). A quarter of them have a limited-term employment contract and another quarter work part-time.
The proportion of people living in Saint-Jean-du-Var who are unemployed is 37%, compared to 24% in the rest of the city. In the QPV perimeter, the employment rate decreased by two points between 2014 and 2020, while it increased by 3 points in Toulon as a whole. Also note that 13% of households are covered by the RSA.
Pervasive poverty
It is estimated that 27% of households residing in the priority district of La Rode are in poverty. However, this is the lowest proportion among the 15 QPVs in the Toulon area.
Some 300 households residing in the QPV of Saint-Jean-du-Var are also in a situation of poverty. That is, again, 27% of them. This rate would be increasing around the places of September 4 and Saint-Jean.
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