At least 624 homeless people died last year, according to a group

Europe 1 with AFP / Photo credit: PHILIPPE LOPEZ / AFP 10:03 a.m., October 27, 2023

At least 624 people living on the streets or in temporary accommodation facilities died in 2022, a stable figure compared to the previous year, according to a report published on Friday by the collective "The Dead of the Street". It is a "scandalous societal drama," the collective said in a statement. According to the data he collected, 87% of these people were men, more likely to live on the streets and for longer periods of time.

"Very premature" deaths

These homeless people died with "very extreme prematurity": at an average age of 49, a gap in life expectancy of more than 30 years with the general population. It should be noted that the average age of homeless women who died in 2022 was 46 years, compared to 50 years for homeless men, while women have a higher life expectancy (85 years in 2022) than men (79 years) in the overall French population.

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This difference on the street can be explained by "the presence of certain diseases that are more common in women than in men," the report says, indicating that they are also hospitalized more before their death than men.

One in five deaths linked to a violent death

Public space is the most common place of death, for 34% of men and 21% of women. Women are slightly more likely than men to end their lives in a care facility (38% compared to 31% of men), which also corresponds to the fact that more women than men are in residential facilities. One in five deaths is related to a violent death (assault, accident, suicide) and one in seven to an illness.

The number of homeless people in France has doubled in ten years, with more than 330,000 people, according to the latest count of the Abbé Pierre Foundation in 2022. More and more women, families and minors are on the street.