The number of households affected rises each year and shows no sign of slowing given the high unemployment rate and stumbling French economy.
“Each year, we simply announce when the truce begins and when it ends, but we are not able to do something that allows us to protest the most vulnerable,” Christophe Robert from the housing charity Fondation Abbé Pierre told The Local previously.
“For some reason in this country we are incapable of putting in place a prevention policy to help families pay the unpaid rent debts or find alternative housing.
“This needs to be done after two or three months (of unpaid rent), but after a year it’s too late,” he said.
Charities recognise that the process needs to be sped up for home owners who, because of the five month winter truce, often have to wait years before an eviction is finally carried out.
They are not all rich landlords and many of them simply can’t afford to be left out of pocket and local authorities procrastinate about whether to order an eviction.
Member comments