Between high rents, precarious contracts and lack of guarantees, many young people struggle to access housing. However, a device allows you to benefit from a roof at a low price.
Looking for accommodation when you are 18, 20 or 23 years old can quickly become an ordeal. Landlords ask for stable income, sometimes several guarantors, an exorbitant deposit, and rents in big cities far exceed what an apprentice, a working student or a young person looking for work can pay. Result: many stay with their parents longer than they would have liked, resort to temporary solutions or postpone training and work projects due to lack of housing.
To address this difficulty, several measures aim to help young people access their first independent housing. One of them is particularly aimed at 16-25 year olds who are working, training or looking to enter professional life. The idea is simple: to offer accommodation at a reasonable price at this pivotal time in life. This model, present throughout the country, welcomes tens of thousands of young people with very different backgrounds each year.
Moreover, in these structures, housing is not only a question of square meters and rent. The objective is also to help residents gain independence and build their personal and professional careers. The young people who live there can be employees, work-study students, interns, students in vocational training or even looking for work. This public constitutes what officials call the “core public”, which must represent more than 65% of residents. A diversity that promotes social diversity and creates an environment where everyone advances at their own pace, while sharing a common framework.
This network represents more than 500 structures spread throughout France and are called young workers’ homes. The Family Allowance Funds participate in financing these structures in two ways. Firstly, through housing assistance paid directly to young residents, which helps to reduce the real cost of their rent. Then through a service dedicated to socio-educational support, financed as part of the Caf’s social action. Concretely, a young person on a work-study program who earns around 900 euros per month can, for example, rent a studio in this type of residence for around 450 euros. Once personalized housing assistance (APL) has been deducted, there is often between 150 and 250 euros left to pay out of pocket each month, charges included.
The operation is therefore based on two pillars. On the one hand, access to housing at a more affordable price than that of the traditional market. On the other, socio-educational support provided by qualified professionals. Young people can thus be helped with their administrative procedures, their job searches, their mobility or even their future access to traditional housing. Support takes several forms: collective activities, individual monitoring or online educational presence.
To access it, young people must submit a file directly to the structure closest to them. The managers then study the candidate’s situation, their age, their activity and their integration plan. A device that has existed for several decades but which still remains little known to the general public.
