French non-governmental organisation Médecins du Monde is calling for “extraordinary measures” because of the deteriorating situation of people living in night shelters, French media reported.
A 50-year-old man who had been homeless for about twenty years died in hospital on 2 January. Another man, 60, who had been homeless for 10 years, died in Place de la Republique in Paris on 9 January.
Guillemette Soucachet, coordinator of the “No health without a roof” programme at Médecins du Monde (MDM), told French news agency AFP:
“It’s a political choice to leave people on the streets. The situation is really deteriorating. We’re very worried about all this, particularly in the context of the immigration law, which, by restricting the payment of social benefits to foreigners, is likely to lead to “even more people living on the streets”.
She particularly regretted that no Housing Minister had yet been appointed in the Prime Minister’s new government:
“We really get the feeling that the government has absolutely no grasp of the urgency of the situation.”
Responding to a question from the National Assembly on homelessness on Tuesday, Prime Minister Gabriel Attal underlined the “550,000 people who have been lifted out of homelessness”, the “doubling” of the number of places in temporary accommodation centres to “200,000 places” and the recent allocation of an extra 120 million euros to combat the sharp cold snap.
