More than 2,000 children are sleeping rough on the streets of France due to a lack of emergency shelter, new figures show. Aid groups are demanding the government take urgent action.
A report by Unicef France and the Federation of Solidarity Actors (FAS), a network of organisations supporting homeless and vulnerable people, said child homelessness has risen by 6 percent in a year and 30 percent since 2022.
On 18 August, 2,159 children – including 503 under the age of three – had no place to sleep.
The count is likely an underestimate, as it only covers children whose parents called 115, the emergency number for homeless people.
“There are all kinds of children, but what worries us most is the rising number of very young ones,” said Adeline Hazan, president of Unicef France, speaking to RFI.
“Between 500 and 600 children are under three, and that number is increasing fast, as is the number of single mothers with children.”
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Need for 'political will'
For 11-year-old Jayyed, who arrived in Lyon from Italy five years ago, life on the streets was a daily struggle. “We slept on bits of cardboard. I had trouble falling asleep, I was afraid we’d be attacked,” he told the French news agency AFP.
“To go to school, I couldn’t take a shower, just wash my hands in fountains.”
His family has since found temporary shelter in a house lent by an association, thanks to the collective Jamais sans toit (Never Without a Roof), a grassroots group in Lyon that campaigns to secure housing for homeless pupils and their families.
Campaigners say many children face similar experiences.
Eléonore Schmitt of the Abbé Pierre Foundation, a leading French housing NGO, told RFI the rise in child homelessness “shows that nothing has been done.
It is obviously a lack of political will. We are calling for strong measures now, because this situation has gone on far too long. Pupils are about to start school and many may spend the entire year without a roof over their heads.”
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'Lasting scars'
Child homelessness leaves deep scars. It can lead to delayed schooling, health problems and, in some cases, dropping out altogether. “It’s about their future – and it’s about ours too,” said Juliette Murtin of Jamais sans toit.
Associations are calling on the state to create at least 10,000 new shelter places, including 1,000 for pregnant women and new mothers. The regions of Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, Occitanie and Île-de-France are among the hardest hit.
The housing ministry has defended its record, saying the number of emergency accommodation places has been stable since 2021 “despite budgetary pressures”. But official reports point to chronic underfunding and weak management.
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Europe-wide issue
Across the European Union and the UK, at least 400,000 minors are homeless and millions more live in inadequate housing, according to the European Federation of National Organisations Working with the Homeless (Feantsa).
Unicef says the situation is especially alarming in Britain, Germany and France.
Campaigners stress that solutions exist. “It’s a scandal, but it’s not inevitable,” said Hazan.
