News
CEB approves €100 million towards housing for the most vulnerable in France
25 March 2021
PARIS – The Council of Europe Development Bank (CEB) approved an additional loan of €100 million to ADOMA, the leading social housing provider and operator of reception centres for asylum seekers in France. The approval brings the total CEB financing for ADOMA’s ongoing Multi-annual Strategic Asset Plan to €200 million.
The additional CEB loan will further help ADOMA to improve housing access and conditions for those who are experiencing economic and integration difficulties and are unable to find accommodation within the traditional housing stock, such as persons with disabilities, migrant workers, asylum seekers, and elderly and homeless people. In particular, the CEB financing will support the management, improvement and renewal of ADOMA’s housing stock, including safety upgrades and the retrofitting of existing housing units in accordance with energy efficiency best practice.
The CEB’s support to ADOMA to date has helped finance about 1 100 projects, aimed at providing more and better housing solutions for vulnerable beneficiaries, 60% of whom originate from outside the EU. The additional loan is expected to have a similar impact.
The CEB loan will support the French Government’s commitments to a sustainable and inclusive recovery from the COVID-19 crisis, as set under the France Relance plan, and to the implementation of the European Commission’s 2021-2027 Action plan on Integration and Inclusion.
The Governor of the CEB, Rolf Wenzel, said: “The COVID-19 pandemic has placed housing in the limelight, particularly from the point of view of the need to ensure adequate homes for all, reduce energy poverty, and mitigate the sector’s environmental footprint. We are pleased to be able to continue working with ADOMA and, thus, to act for the benefit of the most vulnerable in France, in line with the Bank’s exclusively social mandate.”
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France is a founding member of the CEB. Since 1956, the Bank has been instrumental in providing more than € 3 billion in financing for a wide range of social investments, from public infrastructure improvements and state-of-the-art research facilities to support for MSMEs. France is also a contributor of grant resources to the CEB. The French government contributed € 3 million to the CEB’s Migrant and Refugee Fund (MRF), a grant-based facility set up in October 2015 to help its member states tackle the migrant and refugee crisis. More information can be found here.Set up in 1956, the CEB (Council of Europe Development Bank) has 42 member states. Twenty-two Central, Eastern and South Eastern European countries, forming the Bank's target countries, are listed among the member states. As a major instrument of the policy of solidarity in Europe, the Bank finances social projects by making available resources raised in conditions reflecting the quality of its rating (Aa1 with Moody's, outlook stable, AAA with Standard & Poor's, outlook stable, AA+ with Fitch Ratings, outlook stable and AAA* with Scope Ratings, outlook stable). It thus grants loans to its member states, and to financial institutions and local authorities in its member states for the financing of projects in the social sector, in accordance with its Articles of Agreement.
*unsolicited