The leader of the deputies La France insoumise Mathilde Panot denounces the state of child protection in France, saying that “one in four homeless people in our country is a former foster child”.
“Is the state a good parent? Absolutely catastrophic (…) One in four homeless people in our country is a former foster child”lamented Mathilde Panot, president of the group La France insoumise at the National Assembly on BFM TV this Sunday, July 9.
It is actually less than one in four people, if we are to believe the Abbé Pierre Foundation in its report “Aux Porte de la Rue” of 2019. It indicates that “26% of homeless people born in France are former children placed in child protection (i.e. more than 10,000 people)”. This figure therefore concerns homeless people born in France. All foreigners, who represent a large part of the homeless (53% according to INSEE), are therefore not taken into account in the calculation. These homeless people born in France are mainly former children who have been housed in homes, more than in foster families.
Note that the term “homeless” used by Mathilde Panot specifically refers to people “sleeping in the street or in another place not intended for habitation”. As for the term “homeless”, used by the Abbé Pierre foundation, it also includes people without housing, but accommodated by social services.
An overrepresentation of children placed among the homeless
Former foster children are, in any case, overrepresented among the homeless, since it is one in four homeless people born in France, “even though this public represents only 2 to 3% of the general population”, recalls the Abbé Pierre Foundation. This is due to several reasons, according to the foundation, which is based on research work. The State must support these children until they are 18 years old. But when they come of age, they have to fend for themselves financially. This is what the Abbé Pierre foundation calls “the dry exits”.
However, at 18, these young people do not always have the financial means or the family support to access housing. They therefore turn to emergency shelters. Other researchers also highlight the fact that they can also rely less on strong social ties than the rest of the population, since they have often known several homes or several families in several different places. Finally, the rejection of the institution of child welfare means that some of them do not ask for the aid to which they are entitled.
New measures since August 2022
Former foster children can apply for a “young major contract”, assistance that can take several forms, “such as educational support, accommodation, psychological and educational support, financial allowance”, explains for example the department of Val-de-Marne. But according to the Abbé Pierre Foundation, “it is a precarious aid (only 1% have a duration of more than one year)”, especially since‘”at the end of the contract, the young person must again defend his project to obtain its renewal”.
A law that came into force a year ago on the “right to support” aims to solve this problem of “dry outlets“: it obliges the departments to help these adults without resources or family support, particularly in terms of housing. The collective “Mause major” which brings together associations for the protection of children, drew up an initial assessment of this law. He considers that there is progress, but that “many margins of progress remain”.