“We must promote sustainable access to housing”, UNICEF warns of the increase in the number of children on the streets

According to a recent report by Uniceg, 2,043 children slept on the streets during the night of 19 to 20 August. “This is 120% more than in 2020 and 3% more than last year, despite the commitments made by successive governments to no longer have any children on the streets”deplores Julie Lignon, in charge of advocacy for the “fight against poverty” at UNICEF France.

According to her, this increase is explained by an increase in financial insecurity, with “9.1 million people in poverty in France”. “There is an overexposure of families with children to this poverty. One child in five is poor in France today”she emphasizes.

Julie Lignon also indicates that more and more families are facing problems accessing and maintaining housing. “These difficulties are compounded by a lack of affordable housing.”she said. As for emergency accommodation, which should be a “real safety net”it finds itself saturated. Single-parent families are particularly affected by these difficulties, she explains.

“The priority is to maintain the capacity of the emergency accommodation stock. Then in 2025, to increase it, by creating 10,000 places to bring the stock to 213,000 places. (…) We must promote sustainable access to housing, and for this we must build ambitious longer-term policies with the production of social housing”says Julie Lignon.