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4 mins
“No child should sleep on the street this winter,” former housing minister Olivier Klein declared in October 2022. However, less than a year later, across France, several hundred adults and children, most of them foreigners, were expelled from their emergency accommodation. So, has the State changed its discourse and policy? Revelations this evening in the Eye at 8 p.m.
“It was these two windows there, on the first floor“, shows the teenager. For almost 4 years, Mariam, her two little sisters and her parents from Georgia, were hosted in the room of an inn in Amiens. On July 19, this family, which is seeking political asylum in France, was evicted from the emergency housing that the State had allocated to them. Since then, the family has been living on the streets and Mariam has entered 6th grade. “I sleep badly and I have to wake up quite early to go to school, says Mariam. I’m afraid for my future, I’m afraid of staying on the street like this for years.” In Amiens, in recent months, the State has expelled nearly forty families, often single mothers, sometimes with very young children. Associations are trying to help them but they are worried. Especially since their region is not the only one to be concerned.
2000 to 3000 expulsions this summer, according to associations
In the Alpes-Maritimes, 488 evictions took place this summer. For Haute-Garonne, the figure rises to 344. In total, according to the Abbé Pierre foundation, the State has put 2000 to 3000 people back onto the streets in recent months. So how can we explain this wave of expulsions? Under condition of anonymity, a manager of a structure managing emergency accommodation – a SIAO (editor’s note: Integrated Reception and Orientation Service) – mentions a financial problem: “following dAt the request of the minister, we accommodated all families with children in my department. We spent about a year’s budget in six months.” He pursues: “in the spring, when we requested a new financial envelope, the State told us stop.” Faced with lack of funds, state services had to react urgently. As shown by letters from prefects that we have obtained. In a letter, one requests his services a “drop of 15%” of the number of places in emergency accommodation. Another gives a new instruction: “You are asked to no longer shelter isolated people or childless couples.” Some state representatives even set priority criteria for staying in housing. A woman who is 7 months pregnant has priority, she belongs to level 1. Next comes level 2, a family with a child under one year old. Then, a family with a child under 3 years old is level 3.”We have the impression that all the moral dikes have been blowndenounces Manuel Domergue of the Abbé Pierre foundation. We are on ethical red lines and putting criteria according to the age of the child, according to the number of months of pregnancy of pregnant women, it is unhearable.”
“We cannot continue to increase the number of places in emergency accommodation.”
Patrice Vergriete, Minister Delegate for Housing
Has the State abandoned its promise to get families and children off the streets? We went to ask the current minister responsible for housing. Patrice Vergriete does not deny the financial problem. He assures that new places in emergency accommodation could be released but within a certain limit. “Today, we realize that the number of places is insufficient, so we are going to readjust. But that doesn’t remove the underlying problem. We have arrivals in emergency accommodation that we will have to curb, we cannot continue to increase the number of places“, warns the minister. The Ministry of Housing recalls that the number of places in emergency accommodation has increased from 120,000 in 2017 to more than 200,000 today.
Among our sources (non-exhaustive list):
Education without borders network – Somme department
Abbé Pierre Foundation
Delegated Ministry of Housing
Federation of solidarity actors