The first time she visited her accommodation, in 2022, Charlotte thought she had found the rare gem. A small single-storey apartment, easily accessible for this Quimperoise who struggles to walk. All located halfway between the city center and a commercial area. Without forgetting the attractiveness of the rent: “€550, charges included,” recalls the Quimperoise. It seemed like a godsend to me. Especially since when I visited it, it smelled of paint: I told myself that it had been recently redone. »
A year and a half after moving into the apartment, Charlotte noticed damp spots and mold. “Despite the heating, I was cold all the time. And then there was a smell… You could smell the humidity in the air. » Worried about her health, the Quimperoise, who suffers from respiratory problems, appealed to the local section of the consumers and users association (CLCV). At the association's request, a member of the hygiene department of the city of Quimper came to visit the accommodation, and assessed it as not being decent. “After that, the owner refused to do the work,” laments Charlotte. Apart from the VMC, it has not changed anything. It was so unbearable that I went to sleep at my daughter's house on several occasions. »
Advised by the CLCV, the tenant submits a file for accommodation. Which she won't get until two years later. “Morally, things are much better. I feel good in my new home. Despite everything, I can't help but think of the tenants who will take over from me. Because ultimately, he was not prohibited from re-renting the apartment. »
“People accept housing that they would not have taken before”
Cases like that of Charlotte, the CLCV of Quimper is seeing more and more of them. In the space of ten years, its members have seen the number of people in poor housing in the region explode. Blame it on the housing crisis and inflation, which have left many people insecure. “Today, people accept housing that they would not have taken before,” notes Chrystelle Anvroin, lawyer at the CLCV. To the extent that there is a housing shortage, landlords are more likely to default on their obligations because they know that their tenants have no other solution anyway. »
For Michelle Fappani, president of the association, the problem of poor housing in Cornwall stems primarily from a lack of anticipation: “The agglomeration has long lacked ambition. We need to build housing, and massively so. In the meantime, what we're doing is stopgap. It's like emptying the sea with a teaspoon. »
No structure to support tenants in court
In Cornwall, the CLCV is not the only one to fight against substandard housing. The Departmental Housing Information Agency (Adil) also handles numerous files. But in both cases, the structures lack the means to properly support tenants.
“Despite the fact that we have strengthened ourselves internally on this theme at the request of the department, we are reaching the limits of our capacity to do so,” confirms Jean-Baptiste Tréguer, poor housing project manager at Adil. The latter particularly regrets the fact that no association in Finistère can help tenants take their case to court in cases that require it: “It's a real lack because we know that engaging this type of This process requires a lot of energy, and many tenants will not do it alone. Adil, for its part, is not authorized by its statutes to support users in litigation. »
What about the CLCV? “We have the skills, the experience, the legitimacy, but we lack the money,” explains Chrystelle Anvroin. In the meantime, we do not have the means to fight, at least not as effectively as we would like.”
Landlords are more likely to fail in their obligations because they know that their tenants have no other solution anyway.
Towards a rental license?
On this point, Didier Guillon, elected in charge of housing at the Department, explains that he is working on a solution. But he admits that on his side too, finances are stuck: “The Department must make savings. So it is not easy to allocate part of the budget to this problem. That said, we know that this is a major subject and we would like to set up a partnership with the Abbé Pierre Foundation and the intercommunal authorities to finance a position in charge of bringing cases to litigation. » In the meantime, the Quimper CLCV would like the agglomeration to consider implementing a rental permit: “Some cities have already implemented it. This is a preliminary visit carried out by agents to check that the accommodation is decent and can be rented, explains Chrystelle Anvroin. We know that this would require recruiting more inspectors. But in view of the situation, which continues to get worse, and the law, which is not coercive enough towards unscrupulous owners, this seems necessary to us. »
