Is the Law Ever Useful for Disadvantaged People

Abstract

This article analyzes the implementation gap of social rights for disadvantaged people by focusing on the processing of priority applicants for the compulsory right to housing (DALO) in France. Behind the homogenizing legal label of DALO, distinctions must be made between different types of applicants, whose social characteristics and trajectories determine both the type of accommodation proposed by local officials and their contrasted expectations in terms of housing. This explains why accommodations proposed to homeless people who manage to assert their rights are predominantly located in the poorest areas, if they are not simply directed to emergency shelters. Depending on their backgrounds and expectations, they may be satisfied, resigned, or refuse the offer. Lastly, this paper shows the limitations and the unintended effects of the effort to “optimize” social housing policy through the individual recourse to justice, as it increasingly targets policy on the most disadvantaged people and contributes to the concentration of poverty in certain urban areas.

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