In a famous appeal on February 1, 1954, the founder of Emmaüs called for donations to create emergency accommodation. Today, in the midst of the housing crisis, his fight is still relevant.
“My friends, help… A woman has just frozen to death, last night at 3 o’clock, on the sidewalk of Boulevard Sébastopol [à Paris]clutching the paper with which, the day before yesterday, she had been expelled…” The voice which uttered these words on the airwaves of Radio Luxembourg on February 1, 1954, is still unknown to listeners. Abbé Pierre launches his famous appeal for help to the French, to come to the rescue of the most deprived, forced to sleep outside in a freezing winter. In this post-war France, in the midst of reconstruction, seven million people are poorly housed.
Seventy years later, winter temperatures are no longer as harsh. But 4.2 million people still suffer from poor housing, including 330,000 without homes, notes the Abbé-Pierre Foundation in its annual report, published Thursday February 1. On this occasion, franceinfo spoke with Antoine Sueur, the president of Emmaüs France, the movement co-founded by Abbé Pierre.
Franceinfo: Is the appeal launched by Abbé Pierre on February 1, 1954 still relevant, 70 years later?
Antoine Sueur: Today, there are certainly more rights to accommodate homeless people and the laws have evolved a little – even if it is very insufficient – but people still sleep outside and die as a result. Among them, there are children who, by the hundreds, do not have a roof over their heads. It is not normal ! A rich society like ours, which has not been able to prevent this from happening again, has a lot to be ashamed of. There is still a lot of work to be done to mobilize both public authorities and all citizens.
In 2017, Emmanuel Macron pledged to no longer let a single homeless person sleep outside. Where are we with this promise?
Jacques Chirac, Lionel Jospin… I can no longer count the political figures who have made these kinds of promises. These have always been publicity effects, but it has never been possible to deliver on them. First, because the reality of people on the street is much more complex and evolving than it seems. Today, a large proportion of people on the streets come from immigrants, all in cities that attract a lot of people.
“There will always be people on the streets.”
Antoine Sueur, president of Emmaüs France
After this observation, the problem to be resolved is to know what resources are given to these people? What are we putting in place to prevent this from happening? We, solidarity associations, would like everything done to accommodate the homeless as best as possible. In 1954, for example, more or less disused metro stations were opened to deal with them urgently.
Beyond the emergency, we must initiate real in-depth work on housing. However, this is not the case and each year this work falls behind schedule. This is the tragedy of today: people find themselves on the street because the entire housing chain that precedes it is prevented by tourist housing, building prices, the decline in the construction of social housing… This is described very well by the Abbé-Pierre Foundation in its report.
What do you think should be done?
Since the start of the war in Ukraine, with the massive arrival of Ukrainian families in the country, France has been fully capable of organizing the reception of hundreds of people, of creating centers, of opening structures and to appeal to the solidarity of residents. Why would what was possible with the Ukrainians not be possible with the others?
More broadly, we should work both on housing, starting by replenishing the entire social housing construction chain, and on supporting the homeless, once rehoused. But this support work is only possible with grassroots associations, because it is difficult to achieve by the administration alone. It is in this common effort, between State decisions and the action of organizations on the ground, that we must act.
Do you think that the promise of zero homeless people on the streets can one day be kept? ?
To tell the truth, no. On the other hand, the promise that can be kept is to find solutions for people who find themselves on the street, at least to deal with the emergency. There is no reason for people to die outside right now, in a France that is being rebuilt. We are no longer in the situation of 1954, with still the effects of the post-war period, where there was indeed a lot of housing in poor condition, even destroyed.
According to the annual report of the Abbé-Pierre Foundation, 330,000 people will be homeless in 2024, compared to 143,000 in 2012. How can this increase be explained?
Inequalities are growing, it’s a reality. And housing is getting more and more expensive. When we see that to access social housing in the Paris region, you have to wait years, is this acceptable? No. And this is simply explained by a lack of places, because construction is restricted.
This is also because new people are arriving on the market, such as migrants, but not only that. Some find themselves outside because they have difficulty accessing housing, in particular because of the digital divide, which affects many people. Others have difficulty mastering the French language. Finally, some have been completely desocialized for a very long time and are locked up, as if stuck in this way of life, with great difficulty in getting out. It is the sum of all these factors that currently means people are homeless.
The government announced at the beginning of January additional credits of 120 million euros for emergency accommodation. This corresponds to approximately 10,000 additional places nationally. Is it sufficient ?
No. You just have to look at the numbers to realize it. People call 115 every day without finding a place. From a certain time, it is impossible to find accommodation, even for one night, although it is within the country’s reach, if our decision-makers wanted it.
The communist senator from Paris Ian Brossat tabled a bill to give mayors the possibility of requisitioning vacant housing. Would this be effective?
This would be a solution, because there are more than three million vacant homes in France, or millions of square meters available very quickly.
“I can only support this proposal, but these requisitions already exist in the law! And they are only rarely applied.”
Antoine Sueur, president of Emmaüs France
Starting with state premises and public premises, or even premises of large companies, banks, insurance companies and some industrial companies which could be requisitioned.
However, a question still arises, because some free premises are in very remote places, which would pose mobility and transport problems. We really need to produce housing where people need it, in urban and peri-urban areas.
As the Olympic Games approach, many homeless people are evacuated from Paris to centers located in the regions. Some associations speak of “social cleansing”. What do you think ?
Every time we have carried out this type of policy, with collective roundups of people living on the street and sending them to the other side of France, they returned within eight or fifteen days. Of course, we can always repeat the operation each time, but it’s a waste of time. Working in partnership with solidarity organizations would be much more effective.