More than 2,000 children are sleeping on the streets in France, a number that has increased by 120% in four years

According to the barometer of UNICEF France and the Federation of Solidarity Actors, 467 of these children without accommodation solutions are under 3 years old.

More than 2,000 children are without accommodation a few days before the start of the school year on September 2, according to the 6th barometer of children on the streets published on Thursday, August 29 by UNICEF France and the Federation of Solidarity Actors (FAS). This is the first time that the symbolic threshold of 2,000 children on the streets has been crossed.

According to this 2024 barometer, on the night of August 19 to 20, there were 2,043 children for whom the Samu social had not found a solution and who were sleeping on the streets. A number that has increased by 120% in four years (927 children in 2020) and by 3% in one year (in August 2023, there were a total of 1,990). “This continuing increase in the number of homeless children is a tragedy”says Adeline Hazan, president of Unicef ​​France, “in flagrant violation of the principles of the International Convention on the Rights of the Child, which France has ratified.”

Although the number is increasing year after year, it is still underestimated, warns the Collectif des associations unies, which brings together 40 associations involved in the field of housing or accommodation. According to the collective, many families no longer try to call 115, the social emergency number, which is completely saturated.

Among these children without accommodation solutions, 467 are under 3 years old. This is slightly less than last year (480 in 2023), but up 27% compared to August 2022 (368 children under three years old). An increase “partly attributable to the context of saturation of the accommodation stock and blocked access to social housing, which generate the implementation of increasingly strict prioritization criteria, although contrary to the principle of unconditionality of reception enshrined in the Social Action and Families Code”details the barometer.

In Île-de-France, for example, the shortage of places has led the prefects “to establish priority levels based on the age of the children or the progress of the pregnancy”The consequence for associations is that “some pregnant women or families with very young children are no longer guaranteed a place in emergency accommodation.”

These more than 2,000 children without accommodation solutions live mainly in large cities, such as Paris, Lyon or Marseille. In Seine-Saint-Denis, the poorest department in mainland France, 187 minors spent the night outside on August 12. But the phenomenon is also growing in other large cities, such as Lille, Rennes or Strasbourg.

“Children, forgotten during the legislative campaign, must now be at the heart of the priorities of the new government and parliamentarians”plead UNICEF France and the FAS. They call for an immediate increase in accommodation places, promised since January 2024, as well as the implementation of a multi-year accommodation and housing program including specific attention to children and families.

For example, they would like to see the creation of 10,000 additional accommodation places included in the 2025 finance bill to increase the park’s capacity to 213,000 places. The associations also call for ensuring comprehensive support, without interruption and taking into account the specific needs of children, and for strengthening the accommodation offer dedicated to pregnant women or those leaving maternity.

In January 2024, the government promised 120 million euros in additional aid for emergency housing. The associations have never seen this sum arrive while the number of emergency places remains frozen at 200,000.