The French right to housing offers poor and disadvantaged citizens priority in social housing allocation, and even a legal action against the State to obtain a social home. Despite this, France is suffering a long-lasting housing crisis with disadvantaged people having particular difficulties of access, often despite the efforts of local housing actors. Ball uses her own firsthand research to explore this often controversial area.

Introduction 1. Social Landlords and Insider Outsider Theory 2. Exploring the Function of Social Housing 3. The Historical Context: from Revolution to Rights 4. The Right to Housing in Context 5.Complex Institutions in the Grip of Change 6. Social Landlords and their Financing Problems 7. The Social Housing Allocation Process 8. Insiderness and Local Actors 9. Stigmatization and Outsiders 10. Housing Some of the Disadvantaged Appendix 1: Methodological Detail Appendix 2: Allocation Principles

Jane Ball is a senior lecturer at Newcastle University where she teaches several law courses concerning the organization of people on land. After 14 years in English legal practice she spent another 14 years researching the French housing scene, using an applied mix of public and private law, economic theory and empirical study.