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Cold spell: how does the “severe cold plan” help the homeless?
Freezing temperatures continue in France on Wednesday January 10. Thanks to the “severe cold plan”, additional resources are made available to associations. – (franceinfo)
Freezing temperatures continue in France on Wednesday January 10. Thanks to the extreme cold system, additional emergency accommodation places are created to help the homeless.
In Rouen (Seine-Maritime), the triggering of the extreme cold plan allowed a homeless woman to be picked up by the Samu social bus, on the night of Tuesday January 9 to Wednesday January 10. Thanks to this system, emergency accommodation places have been opened, notably in the Monteville gymnasium (Calvados). However, the Red Cross considers that the 3,000 places available in the department are insufficient.
An envelope of 120 million additional euros
“These people, after a while, are exhausted from calling and not having a place. So they stop calling. (…) They are what we call the ‘invisibles'”, underlines Mélanie Ruel, social action referent at the Red Cross. An envelope of 120 million euros was released by the government to deal with the emergency. An encouraging sign, according to the Abbé Pierre Foundation. “It could finance 10 000 new places”, says Christophe Robert, general director of the organization. Three people have been found dead in the street since the start of this cold spell.
