“A few hundred people will be able to benefit,” indicates the Foundation for Housing the Disadvantaged

Places in emergency accommodation were released on Sunday, even if they will not be able to help all homeless people, particularly in Paris and Seine-Saint-Denis, departments where there are the most needs.

“A few hundred people, whether adults or children”will be able to benefit from the system, “so it is indeed important”indicates Eric Constantin, Ile-de-France regional director of the Foundation for Housing the Disadvantaged (former Abbé-Pierre Foundation), guest of franceinfo Monday December 29.

Like around thirty prefectures in France, the extreme cold plan was activated in Paris and the Paris region on Sunday. This system allows the extension of the opening hours of day reception centers, the reinforcement of marauding and the requisition of places to open emergency accommodation places for homeless people.

“We will not be able to respond to everyone”however regrets the director of the association, which lists 4,300 people in the streets of Paris and in thirty towns around Paris, and “4,000 people in slums”.

“There is a shortage of places all year round”adds Eric Constantin, notably “in Paris and Seine-Saint-Denis, the two departments of Ile-de-France most concerned” by requests for accommodation and the lack of places.

The Foundation for Housing the Disadvantaged emphasizes the provisional nature of the extreme cold plan: “We know that with the extreme cold plan, if temperatures increase by a few degrees in around ten days, these places will be closed”continues the director who recommends “strengthen the teams, have more places, but above all places over time”.

Before the holidays, “500 people had contacted 115 and only around fifty had been sheltered”specifies the Foundation for Housing the Disadvantaged.