The extreme cold plan launched in Paris, in preparation for the rest of France

The thermometer has been biting in recent days in France. The cold weather plan to accommodate more homeless people was launched in Paris on Monday, with regional prefects invited to identify potential places to do the same. “This Monday, December 12 at 4 p.m., due to winter temperatures, the extreme cold plan was triggered in Paris”, indicates in a press release the prefecture of Ile-de-France.

The extreme cold plan is triggered by the State when the minimum temperatures felt drop to very low levels, close to -18 degrees. It consists of opening emergency reception places in public buildings not normally provided for this purpose, such as gymnasiums or schools, in order to protect homeless people.

Negative minimum temperatures

The prefects can also increase the human and financial resources dedicated to marauding or to 115, the emergency number for homeless people. Tuesday, Météo-France predicts negative minimum temperatures in Ile-de-France, in Hauts-de-France and Grand-Est in particular, after several days of temperatures below normal seasonal levels.

“From Saturday December 10, additional places were opened in Paris to accommodate people reported during marauding or by 115”, indicates the prefecture of Ile-de-France, without specifying the exact number of open places. Thirty places have been opened in the premises of the prefecture “to accommodate isolated women” and “a hundred” additional for “isolated women, families and men” must be opened “in the next few hours”, according to the prefecture.

“Everything in good condition”

The Minister Delegate for the City and Housing, Olivier Klein, for his part asked the prefects to identify the buildings able to offer temporary accommodation places, in addition to the 198,000 or so available in the country. “I ask the regional prefects (…) to analyze all the vacant sites on their territories, based on the list made available by the State Real Estate Department. You will report to me before this Friday on the possibilities of exceptional use of these sites, ”he wrote in a letter.

The buildings concerned are “everything that is in a correct state, with the capacity to restart the heating and which is available”, specified the minister. “And possibly other buildings that are not public but could be useful and requisitioned,” he added. In 2021, the Morts de la Rue collective identified at least 620 homeless people who died in the street.

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