Over the past year, more than 12,500 homeless people have been moved from the streets of Paris, in what has been called a “social cleansing” ahead of the Olympics.
Homelessness is not a new issue in France and especially on the streets of the capital, however, it seems like the Olympics have accelerated “clean-up” campaigns. Moreover, after being moved, the people are not assessed or given housing, but instead are being placed in regional centres set up as a short-term solution ahead of the Games. Between 1 May 2023 and 30 April 2024, only 27.5% of evictions were preceded by a social diagnosis, almost 10% less than the 36.8% in 2023 and less than half of the 65.3% in 2021-2022, according to a report released by the collective Le Revers de la Médaille on 17 June.
“The Île-de-France region has been emptied of some of the people that the powers consider undesirable”, reads the report, titled “1 year of social cleansing before the 2024 Olympic Games”. The collective represents 90 associations and has found that, since April 2023, 12,545 people have been moved from the streets of Paris, not just the homeless, but also drug addicts and sex workers, which, the report points out, puts them at greater risk since healthcare workers and volunteers no longer have access to them in their usual spots.
They are hiding the misery under the rug.
Paul Alauzy, Médecins du Monde coordinator for health monitoring
According to the report, in one case out of two in 2023-2024, residents were not even aware that eviction proceedings had been initiated against their home, highlighting the dehumanisation and lack of consideration for individual situations in eviction practices in the Île-de-France region, regardless of the homes concerned.
“If this really was a dignified solution to the problem, people would be fighting to get on the buses. They’re not. We are in the process of making life impossible for these people and those who support them”, said Paul Alauzy, a coordinator for health monitoring at Médecins du Monde, highlighting how the rushed moving of people ahead of the summer is far from a solution to the problem but a mere effort to make Paris “appear in the most flattering light possible”.
Addressing the issues, Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo, has passed the responsibility onto the government, as emergency housing falls under governmental attributes. “I am angry about this being pushed on to the city [authority] because it’s not our role or responsibility and we already play more than our part in finding urgent accommodation for vulnerable people. Every week we are putting families into homes”, she said.
There are about 3,600 homeless people in need of housing in Paris. Deputy mayor responsible for solidarity, emergency housing and the protection of refugees, Léa Filoche, has pointed out that the government keeps backtracking on its promises, scaling down from 400 to 200 and finally just 80 housing places provided. Meanwhile, the city has proposed a plan to create 1,000 emergency housing places, but it was rejected by the government due to lack of funds.
