This Wednesday several accounts on social networks claimed that the City of Paris had contacted its inhabitants to offer them to make their accommodation available for the Olympic Games. Supporting evidence, which appears to be an email presented as a survey of residents.
In just a few hours, the posts were viewed several thousand times. The town hall seems to be asking Parisians if, in exchange for a full refund of their rent, they would agree to give up their accommodation during the months of July and August 2024.
Many people totally disapproved of the idea. Some even put forward the fact that “for tourists we are requisitioning accommodation, but not for people who sleep on the street, while there are many unused accommodation”. Others, on the other hand, welcomed the idea, indicating that for students who do not stay in Paris in the summer, or those who go on vacation, it is an opportunity to save two rents. In view of Parisian rents, this is indeed not negligible.
FAKE OFF
But it is nothing. The City of Paris quickly got wind of the publication, and denied the information. “No, Paris does not ask Parisians to lend or rent their accommodation for the Olympic and Paralympic Games”, explained Emmanuel Grégoirefirst deputy in charge of urban planning, architecture, Greater Paris and relations with the districts.
If it is not the City of Paris which is at the origin of this express survey, who is it? This is an initiative of one of the subsidiaries of the Régie immobilière de la Ville de Paris (RIVP), Eneo. Like many housing players in Île-de-France, this subsidiary was approached by the Housing mission created in January within the Interministerial Delegation for the Olympic and Paralympic Games (Dijop).
Student accommodation for Olympics staff, still just an idea
“It is an approach which follows contacts with the organizing committee of the Olympic Games”, specifies the RIVP at 20 Minutes. “The idea is to quantify the number of accommodations that could be made available to Olympic staff. Because this Housing mission aims to find accommodation places for State personnel who will be mobilized during these Paris 2024 Olympic Games. For example, the gendarmes, the nursing staff, but also the security agents of the private sector and some of the 45,000 volunteers recruited. Article 19 of the law relating to the organization of the Olympic and Paralympic Games promulgated on March 26, 2018 which allows this.
The survey was sent to student tenants, and the responses are completely anonymous. “This would allow them to cover their rent over this period”, specifies the RIVP. “There is even a device that would be put in place to keep the belongings of the students that they would have left in their accommodation in normal times. As a reminder, this can only be done on a voluntary basis, and no student can be kicked out of their apartment for these reasons. For the moment, it is only an evaluation, “it is Dijop which will evaluate the procedure to follow, and if it is a solution which will be useful and considered”, notes the RIVP.