ABSTRACT
The caretakers were paid higher wages than the traditional concierges in the private sector, reflecting their more complex task and also difficulties in recruiting. The nature and scale of French housing estates made estate-level services central to the viability of the habitations a loyer modere (HLM). The emphasis shifted to decentralising other management functions to estate level in order to support caretaking staff. The estate- and block-level supervision through the gardiens was more pivotal than ever to holding conditions on estates. Problems in recruitment threatened both the status and the survival of the local system of gardiennage, but its centrality to the survival of the estates themselves was universally accepted. Some HLM organisations responded to the National Commission by becoming more thrusting and up-beat in their approach to management. The report, Ensembles refaire la ville, was presented to the Prime Minister and led in 1983 to the creation of the National Commission for the Social Development of Neighbourhoods.
