Several mayors and elected officials of large left-wing cities are once again sounding the alarm about the fate of street children and urging the government to act, in a column broadcast on social networks on Sunday, December 18.
Only 3 sleeps left before winter Mr. @OlivierKlein93, only 3 sleeps left to keep your promise. In #Strasbourg… https://t.co/CL9sTwR4rZ
“Mr. Minister, will you keep your commitment for children who sleep outside? », challenges the Europe Ecologie-Les Verts (EELV) mayor of Strasbourg, Jeanne Barsegian, to the address of Olivier Klein, in charge of the city and housing in the government of Elisabeth Borne. This text distributed on social networks is notably supported by Anne Hidalgo (PS) for Paris, Grégory Doucet (EELV) for Lyon, Eric Piolle (EELV) for Grenoble, Mathieu Klein (PS) for Nancy or even the city councilors of Villeurbanne (Metropolis Lyon) or Montreuil (Seine-Saint-Denis).
The mayors judge that the minister in charge of housing did not keep the” commitment “ which he had taken in September. Olivier Klein then expressed his ” will “ not to see“children on the street” this winter. According to the signatories of the appeal, “hundreds of children sleep in undignified and chaotic conditions”. In October, associations for the defense of the homeless had estimated the number of homeless children in France at around 2,000.
200,000 emergency accommodation places
Some 200,000 emergency accommodation places, including 45,000 in Ile-de-France, have been made available. The drop in temperatures has also led to the implementation of the Great Cold plan to accommodate more homeless people in Paris and Ile-de-France, as well as in the Grand-Est, Normandy and the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region, while 53 departments have “reinforced” marauding, according to the minister’s entourage.
In Paris, 2,500 people have been sheltered since the plan was launched on Monday, the same source said. An exhibition center located in the La Villette district, in the north of Paris, was also requisitioned overnight from Saturday to Sunday to accommodate homeless women and children. Two hundred places are available there. However, these initiatives remain insufficient in the eyes of elected representatives on the left, who are calling on the State to “universal emergency accommodation plan for all children” whatever their “administrative position”, “sustainable increase” resources devoted to emergency accommodation and “the implementation of a policy of renovation and requisition of housing”.
In October, a dozen left-wing mayors had already campaigned to refuse the reduction in the number of emergency accommodation places in 2023 and 43 elected officials from large cities had sent a open letter to Elisabeth Borne, so that the promise to house or accommodate some 2,000 street children with their families is fulfilled.