Poor housing in France: women and single mothers more vulnerable
A homeless woman receives food and food during a raid by an association, March 18, 2020, in Montpellier.
© SYLVAIN THOMAS / AFP
Text by: Louise Huet
6 mins
This Wednesday, February 1, the Abbé Pierre Foundation is publishing its 28th report on poor housing.
In addition to the overwhelming figures presented, the report also highlights, for the first time, the “
gender
” of poor housing and the difficulties that particularly affect women and single mothers.
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Housing, this “
great absent from the priorities of the executive
”.
This is what the Abbé Pierre Foundation notes in its
new report
, published this Wednesday, on the state of poor housing in France.
The figures are clear: 4.1 million people will be poorly housed in 2022, including 330,000 without a fixed address.
An upward trend according to the report, in particular due to the “
fall in public effort
”.
This year, the foundation devotes for the first time an entire chapter of its report to the specific obstacles and
discriminations
faced by women, LGBTQ+ people and especially single mothers, in the face of poor housing.
“
By analyzing the different residential pathways, we found that gender is a factor that triggers or aggravates poor housing
,” notes Pauline Portefaix, researcher at the Abbé Pierre Foundation.
Women and single mothers, even more vulnerable
Simply put, according to the report, single women
are less well housed.
Because if 20% of all French households are vulnerable in relation to housing, this rate rises to 40% for a single woman with one child, and reaches 59% for those with three or more children.
Against the backdrop of the strong presence of gender-based violence, several factors explain these inequalities, according to the report: lower incomes for single women and the predominance of less well-paid precarious jobs.
Added to this are inequalities of access to property and assets (“
it is twice as common for a man to own real estate assets alone as a woman
”), but also domestic violence, which is a factor "
particularly acute
" of poor housing for women.
As proof, 40% of female victims of domestic violence who ask for accommodation do not obtain it.
In detail, marital separation leads to a
much stronger "
financial and residential shock
" for women than for men, since their disposable income plummets by around 20% (compared to 2.5% on average for men) after separation. .
Immediate precariousness in terms of housing, mostly for single mothers.
Indeed, while 83% of single-parent families are made up of single women, a third of them live below the poverty line, and very often have to accept social housing that is unsuited to family composition.
“
Often, single mothers do not earn enough income to afford a large enough home.
So many mothers don't have their own bedroom and
occupy the living room
, with all that that implies in terms of intimacy and family dysfunction
,” explains Pauline Portefaix.
Women on the street, a “
little visible
” precariousness
When they are on the street, analyzes show that homeless mothers benefit from a "
status of mother who protects them since the children are first protected
", recalls Pauline Portefaix.
Except that, as the report points out, in the last decade, the increase in the number of women with children on the street has come to confirm the hypothesis that this status protects them less than before.
A phenomenon due to the saturation of the emergency accommodation system, according to Pauline Portefaix.
“
We will prioritize and sort women with children according to their vulnerability.
Even families and mothers with 4-year-old children are no longer considered vulnerable enough to be accommodated, as there is no longer enough space.
»
A woman and her son, migrants and homeless, sitting in their tent during an action organized by the association Utopia 56, to protest against poor housing in Paris, June 24, 2021. © GEOFFROY VAN DER HASSELT / AFP
Both men and women on the street are extremely vulnerable.
However, even if women are “
less numerous than men among the homeless
”, their count would be underestimated, due to a lack of visibility.
Since they find themselves “
overexposed to gender-based and sexual violence
” in the streets and slums, women go in search of safety and develop strategies to conceal themselves.
This need to hide can precisely
“lead them to desert day care centers or certain municipal showers
when they are mostly frequented by men
”, analyzes Pauline Portefaix.
This is why, according to the researcher, there are not enough single-sex places to accommodate homeless women.
"
In addition to that, we must train professionals in mixed places to identify and support people who have suffered violence
," she recommends.
Faced with poor housing, the "
failures of the government
"
More broadly, the foundation denounces public policies that aggravate these situations of poor housing, or only "
displace and maintain the difficulties
"
encountered by the homeless
.
For example, the Abbé Pierre Foundation points the finger at the “
budgetary cuts made in APL (personalized housing assistance) and in the resources of social landlords
”.
Thus, the amount of housing aid has never been as low as in 2021, at 1.5% of GDP, while it stood at 2.2% in 2010. That is the equivalent of a decrease of 15 billion euros per year.
On the issue of poorly housed women, the foundation recommends upgrading precarious jobs, as well as alimony allocated to separated mothers.
“
For us, there is a clear lack of political will to resolve this situation.
The executive is betting on more emergency accommodation places, while the solution is to provide sustainable housing for homeless people
, ”adds Pauline Portefaix.
Another “
shocking
” alert from the report: the number of children still on the street, despite the promise of Olivier Klein, Minister Delegate for the City and Housing “
that there will be no more street children this winter
".
On the evening of December 19, 2022, there were still more than 4000 people in families refused by the 115 for lack of space, including 1172 children and 335 under three years old.
“
It is also because we consider that some people are of lower priority than others, that those without a regular administrative situation do not have to be accommodated.
And this criminalization has an impact on children.
They are often referred to as being
"paperless"
.
This means that we look at the administrative situation of the children to find out whether it is legitimate or us to accommodate them, rather than the simple fact that they are children
, ”says Pauline Portefaix indignantly.
Homelessness issues therefore transcend housing policy alone.
And according to the foundation's researcher, it can only be effective if it is accompanied by ambitious health, economic, justice and immigration policies to reduce the overwhelming figures of poor housing.
► Also to listen: Poor housing: "Christmas is a difficult time when you live in loneliness and exclusion"
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