Paris, November 1 (RHC)-- One out of four people suffer from a serious housing problem in France, and homelessness is visible on a daily basis in the nation’s population-dense cities. President Emmanuel Macron made ending homelessness a key campaign promise, but an annual report shows that things have worsened dramatically during the first half of his term.

The number of homeless people who died on the streets skyrocketed 20% in 2018, the biggest year-over-year increase ever recorded.  The official death total was 612, but the report said the actual number is likely six times higher, or nearly 4,000 people; that is because police often do not know the housing situation of everyone who dies, nor do they always notify housing groups when a homeless person passes away.

The report said that only 30% of the victims are addicted to drugs or alcohol. The average age is 49 years old and 90% of the victims are men.  The biggest cause of death is untreated illnesses. 

Only 40% of the victims are French, which reinforces accusations that France has done a woefully inadequate job of caring for its small population of refugees.  Housing rights groups point out that housing is an issue which any government can easily solve: by writing laws which favor tenants and not landlords, by directing more tax revenue into building public housing; and by creating more shelters for those with emergency needs. 

It’s hard to fix what you don’t want to understand, and the report noted that France’s government has not commissioned a study on homelessness since 2012.  That was at the start of the Age of Austerity, which has created unprecedented levels of inequality and homelessness.