“The number of homeless people has doubled in ten years”, warns the general director of the Abbé Pierre Foundation

Despite the increase in the number of places in emergency accommodation, “people live on the street, families, single women with children call 115, they are told: ‘No, accommodation is saturated.‘”, deplores Christophe Robert, general director of the Abbé Pierre Foundation, guest of 12/13 info, Friday February 2. “The number of homeless people has doubled in ten years“, he warns. For him, this is partly explained by the increase in the cost of housing.

Do not modify the SRU law

According to Christophe Robert, two factors explain the tension in finding social housing. “First, the government decided in 2018 to cut the HLM budget“, he explains. Then, external parameters intervened, such as the increase in rates, as well as the increase in construction costs. These issues do not only apply to social housing. “Even the lower middle classes face difficulties in finding housing“, indicates the general director of the Abbé Pierre Foundation.

During his general policy speech, Gabriel Attal proposed modifying the SRU law, which imposes a quarter of social housing per city concerned by 2025, by including intermediate housing in the calculation of 25%. “This is a monumental mistake, we must not do this. (…) The Prime Minister must go back on this proposal, it would be a disaster for the SRU law“, concludes the general director of the Abbé Pierre Foundation.