deterioration, loss of autonomy, insulation… nearly 70 housing units in the city center will be renovated

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“This is a subject we have been working on for almost three years, and which we will be able to launch at the start of the 2025 school year “. At the end of the year, Olivier Lavenka, mayor of Provins (Seine-et-Marne), announcement signing an agreement Scheduled operationhome improvement urban renewal (OPAH-RU), set up with theNational Housing Agency (Anah). The device concerns a perimeter located in the city center, around the town hall, counting 58 streets and bringing together 1,735 housing units. Everything starts from one of the areas of work of the Small Towns of Tomorrow system and a territorial revitalization operation, in which the Town and the community of communes of the Provinois (CCP) have been engaged since the end of 2023.

Downtown Provins has 16% vacant housing

“The main objective is to support the owners, lessors, condominiums or investors on several axes: the energy renovation housing; the adaptation of homes to loss of autonomywhich is a big issue for people who are aging and want to stay at home; and the fight againsthe lives unworthily, degraded and the vacancy of housing that results from this,” explains the mayor of the medieval city.

According to a study dated at the end of 2021, the latter is estimated at around 16% (i.e. 283 vacant housing units, editor’s note), including 7% of accommodations that have been empty for more than 2 years. “Figures which remain average, but which it is time to look at”, estimates the first provincial councilor.

To try to remedy these problems, the OPAH-RU will take place over five years. Every year, 10 to 15 accommodations will thus be rehabilitated thanks to funding from Anah (between €270,000 and €280,000 per year, for a total of nearly €1.4 million in 5 years) and the CCP.

“The objective of 60 to 70 housing units renovated by 2029 is both offensive and realistic”, specifies Olivier Lavenka, also president of the intercommunality, who will dedicate €80,000 per year technical, administrative, financial support, and assistance with work, i.e. €200,000 to €300,000 in five years.

“We will help owners, landlords and co-owners to complete their renovation files, to quantify their work and to identify the aid to which they are entitled,” continues the elected official. Sometimes it will be lourds diagnostics. »

Among the priorities, particular attention will be paid to five islets (Val, Friperie, Griffon, Victor-Arnoult and Bordes), representing around twenty buildings and 63 housing unitsincluding 26 occupied by their owners, 25 rented out by landlords, and 12 co-ownerships deemed “fragile”.

Two danger orders issued by the Provins town hall

They will receive increased support, in particular the buildings of 29 rue du Val9, 11, 13, 15 et 17 rue Hugues-le-Grandor even the 3 and 11 rue Victor-Arnoultpresenting a particularly habitat degraded et blocked. They may be served with a adapted expropriation procedure.

“Two co-ownerships are also the subject ofa danger ordertaken in 2017 rue du Val and in 2024 rue Hugues-le-Grand, recalls Olivier Lavenka. The priority is therefore to obtain land control of these islands, which takes time, because legal proceedings are sometimes underway. »

Once these homes are “recovered”, they can be rehabilitated and allow the reconquest of the doorsteps commercialnamely the shops on the ground floor which often has vacant or abandoned housing located above.

“Today, because they are in uninhabitable buildings as they are, two businesses in the city center are, for example, not rentable,” illustrates the mayor of Provins.

All of the projects that will be carried out within the framework of the OPAH-RU will consist of interior workof roofing or from façadeand should therefore have no impact on traffic in the city center.

“Regarding the facades, and in order to preserve the heritage quality of the city center, we will launch in 2025 a colorization study in conjunction with the Architect of Buildings of France (ABF), concludes Olivier Lavenka. We have more and more owners who are committed to coloring facades and we want them to offer decision support in conjunction with the town hall planning office. The more colored facades there are, the more we hesitate about the tones. So we’re going to codify things a little more. »

The first works of the planned housing improvement operation will start in 2025with monitoring to be carried out every year.

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