INSEE listed 150,000 homeless people in France in its last survey dating from 2012. According to the associations that help them, this figure is largely undervalued and is actually close to 250,000.

Faced with the coronavirus, the government extended the winter truce by two months until the end of May, enough to suspend the evictions and prevent the 14,000 people housed in emergency shelters from ending up on the streets.

The famous "release centers" have also been gradually opened, intended for the homeless contaminated by the coronavirus. The government has also promised a platform to identify volunteers wishing to replace confined volunteers.

In the immediate future, many associations had to give up their activities, like the daily raids. And many of them consider the measures adopted insufficient. They claim that homeless people are "at risk of starving to death". Many are demanding that the innumerable currently empty hotels be requisitioned so that they can confine themselves to safety, rather than in those centers where they sometimes sleep in groups and where dozens of cases have already been confirmed.

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