“At least 706 people died of the street in 2021” counts, Tuesday, November 1, the collective The dead of the street in its tenth report “Count and Describe”. This is a census “not exhaustive”, specifies on franceinfo Julien Ambard, epidemiologist within the collective. He laments a “health problem, a social problem for which in France we still have limited means”.
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Since 2012, 5,508 people have died because “living on the street kills”specifies the collective which counts the number of people who die from the consequences of their past existence on the street, with difficulties in treating themselves, eating and having access to the most basic hygiene.
For the year 2021, “39% of deaths occurred in the street, in the metro, in a square, in a car park; 30% in a care establishment and 12% in a squat, a car, a cabin, in the common areas of a building, in a garage, in a cellar”, details the report. According to the collective, 89% of these deceased were men, dead “on average at 48 years old, i.e. 31 years earlier than the average age of death in the general population”. And among these deaths, “620 people [étaient] homeless, 81 formerly homeless and five recently homeless”explains the collective on its website.
If in 58% of cases, “the causes of these deaths are not well known”Julien Ambard ensures that when they are identified it is “mainly from violent causes, such as assaults, drownings and suicides”. “It represents about 30% of the deaths of 2021”he observes. “42% of identified deaths” in 2021 were identified in Ile-de-France, according to the epidemiologist who observes that since “ten years, Ile-de-France concentrates the majority of the deaths that we identify”.
Julien Ambard does not wish to draw hasty conclusions, recalling that his collective is “based in Paris”. “That does not mean that mortality in Ile-de-France is higher than in other regions, even if we can assume it because there is a higher density of homeless people in Ile-de-France. “he adds.
Julien Ambard also explains the methodology used by the collective Les Morts de la Rue to draw up its annual report, via a system “very informal”. “About 20% of deaths” are reported to the collective by associations, and in particular “social workers who are sensitive to the work of the collective”. The association also compiles its report via press articles “for 22% of reports” and “in 26% of cases” through partners.
In addition to this census, the collective also ensures the dignity of funerals. An agreement with the town hall of Paris has thus been signed. “For all deaths of people who are isolated or homeless, whose body will not be claimed by anyone, the funeral is organized by the town hall of the place of death”, relates Julien Ambard. He also salutes the work of the collective’s volunteers who try to “retrace the journey of the deceased to pay him a tribute” personalized “at the time of the burial in the cemetery of Thiais” in the Val-de-Marne.