France to maintain 43,000 homeless beds for another 10 months

France has promised to keep up 43,000 emergency accommodation beds, created in response to the Covid crisis, until the end of March next year. 

Homeless people sit on folding camp beds in a gymnasium set up by the French Red Cross in Strasbourg, eastern France, on 11 February, 2021. AFP - FREDERICK FLORIN

News of the 10-month extension came as a relief to NGOs, who feared thousands of homeless would be thrown back on to the streets as coronavirus restrictions were lifted.  

More than 200,000 homeless people live in shelters and hotels across France.

Les 43 000 places d’hébergement d’urgence créées pour les sans-abri pendant la crise sanitaire sont prolongées https://t.co/bqM64CW9Lc

— Le Monde (@lemondefr) May 21, 2021

Maintaining the beds comes at a cost of 690 million euros, bringing the annual budget for emergency accommodation to 2.9 billion, the Housing Ministry said.

A “truce” that prevents landlords from evicting tenants during the winter months has been extended until June, while local prefects have been instructed to step up the process of allocating social housing to homeless people.

Efforts 'insufficient'

However NGOs working with homeless people say a more sustainable solution needs to be put in place to help Covid’s “new poor”.

Florent Guéguen, of the Federation of Solidarity Actors, told AFP the 43,000 beds “must be made permanent” beyond March 2022, adding that existing efforts were insufficient.

• Despite decline, nearly 3,000 still sleeping rough on the streets of Paris

"Many single men remain on the streets," Guéguen said. "Thousands" of people were refused accommodation every evening, he added.

The government has moved 235,000 people into sustainable housing since late 2017.

A report by the Abbé Pierre Foundation in February found that some 4 million people were underhoused in France, including some 300,000 homeless.