ABSTRACT
Owner-occupiers, private landlords and social housing companies together added 14 million new units, doubling the stock in the forty-five years from 1945 to 1990. All three tenures added significantly to their stock in the post-war boom, although many older, private rental units were lost, particularly in the 1980s and, overall, more private rented units were lost than gained. The French government and social housing companies alike openly debate the conflict between ensuring access for the most vulnerable and deprived members of society and attracting more secure residents in areas of declining popularity, such as the high-rise peripheral estates. The French, with their strong national pride and desire to make their national institutions work, will continue to invest in its rescue. But complex social and racial problems will undermine progress and threaten stability. Social housing depended on French national savings banks and the small savings of virtually every French household.
