22 French mayors urge Macron to solve alarming homelessness on streets

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The alarming homelessness situation in France has caused more than 20 major French mayors to urge President Emmanuel Macron to address it urgently, as penned in an open letter by 22 mayor. The mayors referenced the most updated report from the Abbé Pierre Foundation, which demonstrated the increasing amount of homeless people and those vulnerable to falling into it.

The letter read, "We are not resigned to the social distress we see every day” stressing that “this winter is particularly worrying because it combines several factors of weakening of people already in a situation of great vulnerability."

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Appearing in Le Journal du Dimanche, the letter offered seven proposals, which the mayors emphasized “to be deployed urgently throughout the national territory” as they requested “an emergency plan for the care of all children and their families without a solution."

Proposals included adopting “a programming and planning law” for accommodation “in a logic of territorial solidarity”, alongside possibly requisitioning empty buildings and a financial penalty, removing “the financial obstacles to the production of affordable housing and social housing”, enhancing housing aid, regularizing people “sustainably established on the national territory” and opening the “first reception centers spread throughout the territory for people coming to seek refuge in France.”

Empty promises 

Back in 2017, after his first election, Macron said he wants to see “no one on the streets, in the woods, by the end of the year” after he vowed to provide housing and emergency accommodation everywhere.

Two years later, the government decided on a budget down by 57 million Euros designated for emergency accommodation.

ِAccording to the report by the Abbé Pierre Foundation, cited by the 22 mayors, 330,000 people are currently homeless in France, which amounts to 30,000 more than the previous year and an increase of nearly 130% compared to 2012.

France has been witnessing mass demonstrations over the past couple of weeks due to rising inflation and the government's plans to push forward pension reform. On January 19, there were more than 200 protests around the nation, with the biggest ones occurring in Paris, Marseilles, Lyon, Toulouse, Lille, and Nantes.