I suppose this is pretty irrelevant for most of us, but I found it interesting. I commonly read on-line versions of Le Monde, Le Figaro, and some other French newspapers -- to maintain and improve my facility with French and, at least in part, to obtain a different view of world news unfiltered by the US news media.
Today I read an article about the French minister of housing establishing a policy that would prohibit a judge from signing an eviction writ for a landlord to evict a non-paying tennant unless alternate arrangements have been made for the tennant to move into other rental space or into a shelter. This is an extension of an existing law that prohibits evicting tennants during "winter" -- which for purposes of this law extends from November to mid-March. Life would be tough on landlords there. You can't evict a non-paying tennant until you first find someone else willing to take the slacker in?!!! Lots of room for unintended consequences there, n'est-ce pas? How about people removing their housing from the market from fear of not being able to collect rent from free-loaders, thereby reducing supply, thereby driving up prices? How about landlords demanding more up-front money to indemnify themselves against this risk, thereby driving the poor out further?
Oh, ya, these European nations have it all figured out, and we the US needs to drink at the well of their greater wisdom! NOT!
French housing policy
