A reprieve for the families most in difficulty. This Tuesday starts the winter break, which will end on March 31, 2023. This does not prevent charities from being worried about the fate of the most precarious at the end of this deadline. “We fear a step back, namely that we will reach a number of expulsions close to that of 2019 (16,700). Because unpaid rents are likely to increase due to inflation and soaring energy costs,” says Marie Rothhahn, head of the fight against the deprivation of social rights at the Abbé-Pierre Foundation.
At the Ministry of Housing, we are also counting on this level, and “the minister sent a letter to the prefects asking them to limit rental evictions without solutions” at the end of the truce, explains the entourage of Olivier Klein, minister delegate to Housing. If the upward trend in evictions is confirmed from the end of March, it will contrast with the figures for 2020 (8,156) and 2021 (12,500). And this thanks to the action of the government to reduce them, by giving instructions to the prefects to limit them as much as possible, by extending the winter break for two years in a row, by increasing the funds for Solidarity housing and the compensation for donors, and by increasing aid from Action Logement. Measures that have not been renewed this year. “Whatever it costs, it’s over”, observes Marie Rothhahn.
Evictions without alternative accommodation
In addition, since 2020, mobile teams for the prevention of rental evictions have been going to the homes of people in difficulty to try to find solutions with them. A device tested in 26 departments: “3,000 households were met and a diagnosis made”, indicates the entourage of Olivier Klein. “This legal and social support is a very good thing. But alas, these mobile teams are only deployed in a quarter of the departments, when they should be throughout France, ”says Marie Rothhahn.
The associations also fear that a good part of the people evicted in the coming months will not have a proposal for rehousing. “We lack social housing, places in boarding houses, private housing at affordable rents. However, there are 3 million vacant homes in France,” emphasizes Marie Rothhahn.
The potential closure of accommodation places
In addition, the government has planned the closure of 14,000 accommodation places, 7,000 places in 2022 and 7,000 others in 2023. A decision which it justifies by emphasizing that in 2020, the “exceptional level” of 200,000 places available is explained by the health crisis. But which has been denounced by elected officials. In a letter sent last Thursday to Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne, ten mayors of large cities in France thus denounced this planned drop. “These pure and simple outings are intolerable, and it is therefore up to the communities, without additional funding, to assume the consequences of these uncoordinated choices”, they castigated.
This prospect is all the more worrying as tensions over emergency accommodation are already evident on the ground. “Every day, currently, more than 6,300 people calling 115 (the social Samu) do not obtain an accommodation solution. And more than 2,000 children sleep rough. This figure has doubled since the beginning of the year”, emphasizes Marie Rothhahn. This figure of 6,000 calls without a solution behind is also underestimated, a large part of the people on the street no longer calling 115 weary of war.
“No child will sleep rough this winter”
Olivier Klein however promised that “no child will sleep on the street this winter”. “A crisis unit has been created on the subject. The prefects will be mobilized to identify these situations and find solutions for these families, ”says his entourage. The associations intend to continue to fight so that the government gives up eliminating accommodation places: “We still hope for arbitration”, insists Marie Rothhahn.