several associations are calling for a “Christmas ruckus for the homeless, poorly housed and tenants” in Paris

The Right to Housing, the Single Mothers Movement and Utopia 56 denounce the non-application of the requisition law, while thousands of homes are vacant in the capital.

While temperatures have dropped this Christmas Day – between -1 and 3 degrees in Paris, for example – several associations are calling for a “Christmas ruckus for the homeless, the poorly housed and the tenants” Thursday December 25 in Paris. The DAL (Right to Housing), alongside the Single Mothers Movement and Utopia 56 will meet in the afternoon near the Alma-Marceau metro stop, in the 8th arrondissement of the capital. They demand the application of the requisition law, dating from 1946 and which allows vacant housing to be temporarily offered to those who need it in exchange for compensation for the owner.

“We must twist the arm of owners who keep their accommodation unoccupied or who only use it very temporarily”declared Thursday on franceinfo Jean-Baptiste Eyraud, co-founder and spokesperson for the Droit au logement association.

“The last time we visibly used (the requisition)It was in 1995 when a little less than 1,000 homes were requisitioned, belonging to financial groups and insurance companies.recalls Jean-Baptiste Eyraud. He assures that today in Paris, in the “Golden Triangle”, one of the most exclusive districts of the capital, near the Champs-Elysées, “we have around ten buildings that have been completely vacant for years, the tenants have been gradually evicted by a company which, moreover, owes a lot of money to the State”according to him.

Jean-Baptiste Eyraud cites INSEE (the national statistics institute) which “estimates the number of vacant homes at just over 115,000” in the capital. The president of the DAL requests that the State requisition these housing units and produce “social housing in Paris and the greater suburbs instead of helping investors and small owners to buy housing to rent, as the various governments do”. “Leaving people on the street in winter as in summer is a form of death sentence because it is very hard to live on the street”recalls the DAL spokesperson.