The legislation has gradually integrated the objectives of social housing rates then social diversity.

A National Commission for Planning, Town Planning and Land (CNAUF), chaired by Thierry Repentin, interministerial delegate for social diversity in housing, must ensure that the price of land is not dissuasive and that the mix in housing is at least in accordance with the law on urban solidarity and renewal (SRU) throughout the territory (in particular, article 55 of this law specifies where the social rental stock must represent at least 20% or 25% of the total number of main residences).

After a phase of major projects which often led to large sociologically unbalanced housing districts solely devoted to social rental, city policy has gradually sought to (re) insert in these districts “shops, an economic activity. , but also to bring in private property through arrangements to open up the neighborhood ”. In 2015, fifteen years after the SRU vote, according to the CNAUF, “450,000 housing units were built in municipalities, some of which were reluctant, fifteen years ago, to accommodate social housing. (…), out of the 1,022 municipalities in deficit over the period 2011-2013; 615 reached or exceeded their goals, ”but“ 387 were behind their goals.

Of these 387 communities, the State has qualified 222 of them as being in a deficiency situation ”; in these common cases the State has some means of limiting land speculation and it can impose higher financial penalties (and which could be further strengthened by the Equality and Citizenship bill), and even take the place of mayors to create social housing. Since the law of January 13, 2013, under certain conditions, the common heritage of the State can be sold (old barracks for example) at a price lower than the market price to build social housing.

For example, a piece of land in Paris (4 rue de Lille, 7th arrondissement) was sold on June 26, 2015 at a discount rate of 77%. From 2013 to 2015, the allowable discounts represented the equivalent of almost 27 million euros. In a few cases, the discount could be 100%, allowing social landlords to build on land they will not have to buy. In 2018, “nearly one in six households” benefited from so-called social housing, but the Ministry of Territorial Cohesion noted a decrease in the construction of social housing in 2018, confirmed in early 2019.