SDF: "Never has any government done so much," Denormandie answers to Gardin

On Wednesday, Blanche Gardin refused to be decorated at the order of Arts and Letters, accusing the government of not keeping its "promises" against poor housing.

Julien Denormandie, Minister of Housing, defended Thursday the action of the government for the homeless, estimating it of an unprecedented scale. On Wednesday, comedian Blanche Gardin publicly refused to be decorated by accusing President Emmanuel Macron of not meeting his commitments. "No government has ever opened so much emergency shelter," said Julien Denormandie on France Bleu radio. "I do not welcome it, I just say it's a fact."

On Wednesday evening, Blanche Gardin announced in a letter to Emmanuel Macron, published on Facebook, that she refused to be named to the Order of Arts and Letters, accusing the government of not keeping its "promises" and not not put "everything in hand to get homeless people out of the street".

Increased emergency accommodation

During the first months of his five-year period, in the summer of 2017, Emmanuel Macron had said that he would not want people to be by the end of that year "in the street, in the woods or lost". "As long as there is still a person in the street, it is that the work is not finished", recognized Julien Denormandie. Refraining from making a commitment on the matter, as associations refer to more than 500 homeless deaths last year, he referred to government action on emergency shelter.

"When I was appointed, the emergency shelter system was about 130,000 places, it was already a lot," he detailed. "Since then, it has risen considerably, today it is 145,000 seats, and no government has done so much." On the line of an answer already published the night before on the social network Twitter in the wake of the letter of Blanche Gardin, the minister recalled that this week the executive had announced the perpetuation of 6,000 open accommodation spaces during Winter.

Ms. #BlancheGardin, I allow myself to respond to your post that challenged me. As Minister of Housing, I fight relentlessly at all times against exclusion in all its forms, c / these phenomena of misery that question us about our ability to protect pic.twitter.com/bM3yRG6CzX