Organization of housing public sector

The organizations of housing public sector are, in France, of the public agencies or private which build or manage rental residences intended for people of modest condition. They replaced, under the Law of 1949, the old organizations of Habitation at a cheap rate (HBM).

The organizations of housing public sector, defined in the Code of construction and the dwelling in the articles L. 411 and following, can be public corporations such as the OPAC or the OPHLM or of the organizations of Private law.

With the beginning of the year 2000, one counted approximately 850 organizations HLM:

292 public offices of HLM (including 101 OPAC)
316 social companies for the habitat (novelle designation of SA HLM)
65 companies of real estate credit and 21 financial subsidiary companies
156 cooperative society of HLM

In addition, some Société of mixed economy, which are not juridically organizations HLM, are active in the sector of construction and the management of social housing.

Mission of the organizations of housing public sector

The organizations of housing public sector build, buy, renovate, manage residences rented with families of modest condition. They can grant their guarantee to tenants wishing to reach the property. They act finally in favor of the objective of social diversity. In order to compensate for the service of general interest that these organizations fill, the State grants specific tax exemptions and assistances to them.

These organizations can be:

public: Public offices of the Habitat replacing the statutes of OPAC and OPHLM by the ordinance n° 2007-137 of February 1st, 2007

private: social companies for habitat (in the past called SA HLM) and other private organizations

Public corporations of housing public sector

There existed in France two types of public corporations of housing public sector : public offices of installation and construction (OPAC) and public offices of housing public sector (OPHLM). They differed by their statute and the mission which the law allots to them.

In practice, the OPAC and the OPHLM carried on very close activities and it was frequent that a OPHLM is transformed into OPAC. The law of July 13rd, 2006 “bearing national engagement for housing”, envisaged to amalgamate the OPAC and the OPHLM in a unified structure: the public office of habitat (OPH), a public corporation related to commercial industrial and attached to a Local government agency or a public corporation of inter-commune co-operation (EPCI).

It is thing made since February 1st, 2007. The new OPH, have since this date a statute close to that to the old OPAC.

It should be noted that all the legal modes applicable to public agencies HLM prévoyent, since the Law Bonnevay of 1912, that the Council of adminiustration of the organizations has a tripartite composition, mélant representatives of the State, the community of fastening and the qualified personalities (representatives of family associations and tenants…). The State indeed always wished to have a strong supervision on public agencies HLM.

Public offices of housing public sector (OPHLM)

The OPHLM are public corporations created by territorial collectivities.

They build, arrange, allot and manage social housing rented with underprivileged people or of modest condition. The territorial collectivity to which they are attached can however allocate other responsibilities specific to them to the OPAC. The State also exerts a control on the OPHLM via the prefect. The employees of a OPHLM are territorial civils servant or public agents.

The OPHLM are the heirs to HBM, created by the law of Laurent Bonnevay of December 23rd, 1912, and transformed into HLM by the Law of 1949. They are currently governed by the L421-4 articles and following of the Code of construction and the dwelling.

Public offices of installation and construction (OPAC)

Resulting from the Law of July 16th, 1971, the public offices of installation and construction or OPAC are public corporations related to commercial industrial and (EPIC) which carries out and manages residential buildings for the account of or in collaboration with the State or the territorial collectivities.

Their mission is broader than those of the OPHLM. They act in particular in the field of the social housing, but can also exert many competences related to housing, like managing a joint ownership being the subject of a protection plan. The personnel of the OPAC is governed by the private law.

The OPAC are governed by the L421-1 articles and following of the Code of construction and the dwelling. Contrary to the public Offices, their statute of EPIC enables them to be subjected either to the Public accounts, or with the business accounting. In the same way, their employees can be subjected to the Labor regulation or be territorial civils servant or public agents.

The coexistence of these two statutes, together with missions and different territories of intervention, did not exclude to make it possible to the OPHLM to exert whole or part of competences reserved for the OPAC, on deliberation of their territorial collectivity or their EPCI of fastening. This is why, in the facts, the two categories of organizations exert similar missions today.

In addition, a growing number of OPHLM profited from the possibility offered by the texts to transform itself into OPAC.

However, these problems from now on are regulated, since public OPAC and Offices HLM from now on are transformed juridically into public Offices of the habitat.

Public Offices of habitat (OPH)

To conclude its this logic of bringing together between the two categories of offices HLM, the ordinance n° 2007-137 of February 1st, 2007 relating to the public Offices of the habitat creates a new category of public corporations of HLM called “public offices of the habitat” and organizes the full transformation into public offices of the habitat of all the OPHLM and existing OPAC.

The Ordinance n°2007-137 of February 1st, 2007 relating to the public offices of the habitat, amends of the OPHLM by carrying out the fusion of offices HLM and the Offices Public of Installation and Construction (OPAC). From now on, the qualified public corporation as regards social Housing will be the public Office of the habitat (OPH). The main axes of the reform are the following:

change of the statute: the OPH is a Public corporation in matter industrial and commercial (EPIC)
a right of option between Public accounts or private is open
extension of the field of competence
right of option for the personnel already in station at the time of the reform between public statute or private (two years to be determined), while the new ones recruited will be subjected to the private law
change in the composition of the Board of directors, with for effects on the one hand, that the community of fastening is represented better (majority of the seats) with the detriment of the representatives of the prefect (which with office a seat); in addition, the composition of CA is enriched (1 seat for the representative of the Work's council); finally, the capacity of the Managing director are increased (named by the board of directors).

This new institutional framework, mainly inspired of the statute of the OPAC, makes it possible the offices of HLM to adapt to the new context created by the reinforcement of competences of the territorial collectivities in the field of the habitat, while taking an active share with the implementation of the social cohesion plan.

Private organizations of housing public sector

According to the code of construction and dwelling, four types of private organizations are qualified organizations HLM:

social Companies for habitat (ESH), new denomination created in 2002 to qualify the public limit companies housing public sector.
the public limit companies Co-operative S of production, created by the Law N°71-580 of July 6th, 1971 and subjected to the Statute of the co-operation and the public limit companies Co-operative S of collective interest of housing public sector
the public limit companies of real estate credit (SACI)
the foundation S of housing public sector,

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