An increasing number of homeless families are turning to hospitals to house them in the absence of any other provision, according to a report from the public health body of the Ile-de-France region.

"/> An increasing number of homeless families are turning to hospitals to house them in the absence of any other provision, according to a report from the public health body of the Ile-de-France region.

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HOMELESS

Homeless families seek refuge in hospitals

An increasing number of homeless families are turning to hospitals to house them in the absence of any other provision, according to a report from the public health body of the Ile-de-France region.

Published: 21 July 2011 09:04 CEST

The report, from Assistance Publique-Hôpitaux de Paris (AP-HP) and reported in daily newspaper Aujourd’Hui, says that 111 families with children turned up at emergency departments in the six weeks to July 4th looking for somewhere to sleep.

The increase is blamed on government cuts to SAMU Social, an organisation that helps the homeless. SAMU Social receives 92 percent of its funding from the state and has recently had its budget cut by 25 percent. When it is unable to pay for a hostel, the organisation has been sending those in need to seek help in hospitals.

Cuts to the service have led the organisation’s founder and president, Xavier Emmanuelli, to resign. “Things are no longer manageable … nobody cares about this service,” he told the weekly magazine Charlie Hebdo.

Emmanuelli created SAMU Social in 1993, with the help of the then mayor of Paris, Jacques Chirac.

The minister for housing, Benoist Apparu, told the newspaper that the government was trying to move people out of temporary hostel accommodation and into rental accommodation.

“Ultimately, there will be the same number of places as now for homeless families,” he said.

The director of the anti-poverty charity Emmaüs, Christophe Deltombe, said Emmanuelli’s resignation was an “alarm call.” “There are families and children living on the streets today and organizations are unable to put a roof over their heads,” he told radio station Europe 1 on Wednesday.

Emmaüs estimates that there are 100,00 people sleeping rough in France.

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The shocking stats that reveal the increasing number of homeless people dying in France

Photo: AFP

612

This is the official total for the number of homeless people who died in France in 2018, according to a new report by the French charity Morts de la Rue.

The figure represents those living either on the streets or in emergency shelters or unofficial squats in the months before they die. Some 20 percent of victims have been SDF (sans domicile fixe or homeless) for five years before their death.

In reality the real number is likely to be far higher. In fact health authorities in France suggest the true total could be as much as six times higher.

It can often be hard to determine an exact cause of death. Many homeless people suffer from illnesses and some 30 percent are addicted to alcohol or drugs. The suicide rate among homeless people is higher than average and violent attacks and accidents are also behind some of the deaths.

19 percent

This represents the percentage increase in the number of deaths between 2018 and 2017, when there were 511 recorded deaths of homeless people.

That represents the biggest jump in recent years but the number of deaths have been steadily rising since 2013 when there were 461 recorded.

50 percent

According to Morts de la Rue, 50 percent of the homeless people who die do so “before our eyes”, in other words on the streets in full view of the public.

48.7

That's the average age of the homeless men who died last year, well below France's average life expectancy which currently stands at 82 years.

14 percent

Some 14 percent of those homeless people who die are from around Europe. Indeed less than half are French, according to stats from Morts de la Rue.

Some 20 percent of victims are from outside the EU and 25 percent are registered as “unknown origin”.

13

The number of those who die on the streets of France or in shelters also include minors. Last year there were 13 homeless people who died under the age of 18.

90 percent

While 90 percent of the victims are men, there are an increasing number of women.

“Homeless women are often invisible, face particular difficulties related to gender, and suffer from violence during their life on the street,” said the authors of the study.

Between 2013 and 2018, 280 homeless women died at an average age of just over 46 years old. That number included 24 young women including children under the age of nine. One third of those homeless women who died were mothers with young children.

So what needs to be done?

As part of his presidential election campaign Emmanuel Macron promised to provide a roof over the head of every single person in France. But the government has a lot of work to do before his promise is fulfilled.

Nevertheless the charity Morts de la Rue insists “a home for everyone” must be the ultimate goal for authorities.

“Having a place to live is vital,” say Morts de la Rue.

“We can see that the impact on people of their time spent on the streets – mostly the effect on their physical and mental health which makes reintegration more difficult and even impossible over time,” the study said.

But in the meantime the charity is demanding a new major government study into homelessness. The last one carried out by the state's statistics agency INSEE was back in 2012.

The charity also insists that there must be consistency in the emergency accommodation offered to homeless people, whether it's the night shelters or the temporary homeless accommodation that opens in the winter months but closes in the spring.

Homeless people must be offered shelter all year round, the charity says, to provide them with a base and some stability.

Homeless people also need to be followed more closely by health and social agencies especially after they have spent time in hospital. Often they are not offered any help at vital times such as the period between leaving hospital and waiting to being given temporary accommodation in a shelter.

Police and the courts also need to be made much more aware of the impact of domestic violence on women.

“If they are better protected, they will not be forced to flee their own homes to escape the violence that they endure,” added Morts de la Rue.

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