Study Reveals Growing Racial Bias in French Social Housing Applications

Between April and May 2022, a testing campaign was carried out by the economists Sylvain Chareyron and Yannick L’Horty with 1,875 registration desks. Each desk received emails signed by two different candidates - one of French origin, the other of presumed West African origin - who wished to file a social housing application and request information on the steps to follow. The results of this new survey are clear: ethno-racial discrimination exists not only in the private sector, but also in the social housing sector.

Nearly half of the desks do not respond to the requests. Yet a law (ALUR) passed by Parliament in 2014 establishes a right to information and equity of treatment for the applicant. The researchers found that among those who provide responses, "more than a third only respond to one of the two candidates, most often the one presumed to be of French origin." Consequently, "The candidate presumed to be of African origin has a 3.2 percentage point lower probability of receiving a positive response compared to the candidate presumed to be of French origin."

The researchers will also specify that "among the desks that provide responses to both candidates, 23.5% formulate differentiated responses to equivalent requests: 65 orient the two candidates differently, to the detriment of the one presumed to be of African origin, 55 assist the candidate presumed to be of French origin more, 6 add discouraging information for the candidate presumed to be of African origin only." and that only 24.2% of the desks respond positively and similarly to the requests received.