Enhancing the Sustainability of Social Housing Policies through the Social Impact Approach: Innovative Perspectives form a “Paris Affordable Housing Challenge” Project in France

The environmental, economic and social challenges re-launched in the European Union Agendas (e.g., Horizon 2020 and Europe 2020–2030) have recently returned to being highly debated. In particular, policies and interventions in the field of social housing (SH) are still remaining crucial issues for urban regeneration. These interventions are aimed to combine sustainability criteria with architectural, urban and environmental quality. In this context, our goal in this article is to provide an innovative perspective on the topic highlighting the positive returns enabled by the logic of the social impact approach (SIA). A pilot project is proposed to be performed in the VI arrondissement of Paris. Starting from the French regulatory context and the requirements set by the “Paris Affordable Housing Challenge” competition, the levers of social finance for new social demands and the levers of incentives are applied to a real case. The research results show that the application of the emerging principles of social impact investing (SII) in areas difficult to access in the private market had positive returns. The final aim of the article is to outline guidelines that consider the quality, management and generation of the social impact requirements highlighted in the proposal to facilitate the application of the SIA to other interventions and contexts.