The Minister in charge of Housing, Emmanuelle Wargon.

-

JC Tardivon / SIPA

From the health crisis to the social crisis: the government has decided, like last year, to extend the winter break for rental evictions which is postponed to June 1 "in the face of the real risk of dropping out of households in difficulty".

"I can tell you that the end of the truce is postponed by two months and will end on June 1 instead of April 1," Emmanuelle Wargon announced in an interview with Le

Parisien on

Monday evening.

A truce on energy cuts due to unpaid heating bills has also been decided.

Already in 2020, because of the pandemic, the winter truce had been postponed by more than three months.

This announcement comes at a time when the Abbé Pierre foundation publishes an alarming report: the coronavirus pandemic has not only created new precarious situations but also worsened the situation of millions of people already poor and badly housed in France.

45% increase in requests for food aid

All the indicators compiled by the association have turned red: the Secours populaire recorded in 2020 a 45% increase in requests for food aid compared to 2019, while the Restos du Coeur plan to host more than one million people this winter, compared to 875,000 in 2019-2020.

"Already witnessing the '' shock wave '' caused by the health crisis, the number of RSA beneficiaries increased by nearly 10% during the year 2020, from 1.9 million to 2.1 million people, ”the report adds.

“From a health crisis that has become economic, we risk tipping over to a social crisis.

We are now facing a real risk of dropping out of households in difficulty, ”acknowledged the Minister.

One in seven French people in difficulty with housing

An Ipsos poll for the FAP reveals that 14% of French people have had housing-related difficulties (payment of rents, obsolescence) since March 2020 and 29% express fears about this for 2021.

These new precarious people have joined the ranks of those who already suffered from poor housing before the pandemic, faced with a "double sentence".

In 2020, the Abbé Pierre Foundation identified 4.1 million poorly housed people in the country, including 300,000 homeless.

"It seems essential to me to prioritize and stagger the evictions while ensuring not to evict without a rehousing solution or at least accommodation," said the Minister of Housing.

The latter also recognized that it was necessary "better to compensate lessors whose tenant is not evicted because we want to give him a second chance", specifying that she was in favor of automating this compensation.

In 2020, 3,500 people were evicted from their homes, according to a parliamentary report published on Sunday, a decrease of 79% compared to 2019 due to the extension of the winter truce until July 10 due to a health crisis.

Society

Bad housing: rent arrears, the time bomb of the health crisis

  • Housing

  • Society

  • Coronavirus

  • Bad housing