poorly housed people demonstrate in Paris on Christmas Day

A demonstration took place this Wednesday, December 25 on Place Clémenceau in Paris at the initiative of the Droit au logement (Dal) association, in order to demand requisitions of unoccupied apartments and to request new construction.

Demonstrators met this Wednesday, December 25 in the 8th arrondissement of Paris, on Place Clémenceau at the call of Right to Housing (Dal).

This “great Christmas ruckus for the poorly housed and homeless” is part of a mobilization by the association launched last November. The Dal is asking the government for “rehousing commitments” for families and households who have been unable to obtain social housing.

A march of requisitions

“In Paris, in Île-de-France, there are more than 300,000 unoccupied homes, so there is enough to do to house the 80,000 to 100,000 homeless people in our region,” assures Jean-Baptiste Eyraud, spokesperson of the association, at the microphone of BFM Paris Île-de-France.

“We need to produce social housing like never before, especially at a time when the building is collapsing because they don't have enough work. Let's go. Let's respond to urgent needs,” demands the latter.

Jean-Baptiste Eyraud mentions “more than 800,000 applicants for social housing, and less than 70,000 allocations in the year” in Île-de-France.

“It’s a real disaster. Paris has 280,000 HLM applicants and 8,000 allocations in the year,” he concludes.

The association has already scheduled a new protest event on Sunday January 5 with a “requisitions march”. The Dal is demanding from François Bayrou and his Minister of Housing, Valérie Létard, an order to requisition empty buildings (housing and offices).