This winter, 2,000 children will not have a fixed address

In France, 2,000 children have no fixed address. For 10 years, the number of homeless has doubled, unlike the emergency solutions which are running out and which, despite the freezing temperatures, are struggling to give shelter to everyone.

Several left-leaning elected officials from big cities sign a forum to warn about the living conditions of minors in their city. They call for immediate and long-term action to ensure decent and safe housing conditions for all children.

The number of homeless people has doubled in 10 years

While France experiences freezing temperatures, 300,000 homeless people live there, double the number in 2012. Among them are at least 6,000 families, 2,000 of them children. The Covid crisis has made many families precarious, then faced with the liberal policy of governments which are gradually reducing economic aid for housing, the number of social housing, but also seasonal places in emergency housing:

From 2021 the government wants to get out of what it calls thermometer management. And so, we no longer resort to setting up temporary winter structures.

Valérie Puvilland, director of Interlogement 93, for France Info

Despite the winter emergency, services such as 115 are struggling to meet the demand. The situation is particularly tense in the Paris region where the social network Samu receives between 1,500 and 2,000 calls a day without being able to answer all of them.

Housing for all, an inalienable right

In a message to the government, published in particular on the Twitter account of the mayor of Strasbourg, elected officials deplore the shameful living conditions of some children who sleep in the open, in slums, squats or municipal infrastructure. However, on September 27, Olivier Klein, the Minister of Housing, had pledged not to leave any children on the streets this winter.

Currently, 4 regions have started the plan for the cold: their public places are being transformed into emergency reception centers and additional financial and human resources are being employed to increase the rate of raids and the management of the social Samu. The housing minister has also called on all businesses to share their unoccupied premises.

In their forum, elected representatives call for systematic and universal emergency solutions to protect children sustainably. They also call for a renewal of the long-term housing policy.

The housing crisis in France is weakening 14.1 million people today, of which 4 million are not or are poorly housed in unsanitary places.

Photo credit image of one: Getty Images Signature