Social Mix Policies in the French Eco-Districts: Discourses, Policies and Social Impacts

In the 1960s, France built large high-rise developments to house poor and immigrant populations. This policy led to the rise of crime and violent unrest in those developments. Responding to that failure, France has tried, especially since the eighties, to promote a social mix policy in its new housing developments. In the first decade of the twenty first century, France elaborated an eco-district (eco-quartier) program whose guidelines emphasize the goals of this social mix policy together with affordability in public social housing. In light of these developments, this paper focuses on the socio-economic aspects of French eco-districts, especially with respect to low-income populations. The eco-quartier housing distribution has shown that social mix goals are barely reached. In affluent cities, where property prices are high (such as Paris, its middle-class suburbs and some large cities), the municipalities build eco-quartiers in substandard neighborhoods, to attract middle class families. In average cities, some municipalities have implemented more social housing than planned, to provide developers with access to State subsidies and loans – but can still privilege the middle-class in the allocation of the resulting housing. In the poorest French towns, eco-quartiers can improve living conditions for local residents but do not effectively promote social mixing.