Homeless Families Protest at Paris City Hall

Dozens of homeless families, mostly women with young children, camped out in front of the city hall of Paris’ 18th district, demanding housing and saying their situation worsened during the clearing of squats in the lead-up to the Olympic Games.

Co-founder of Utopia charity, Yann Manzi, said the homeless families were kicked out of shelters a few months ago and were offered emergency housing in towns far from the capital.

The NGO ‘Le Revers de la Médaille’ (‘Other side of the coin’) has said 12,500 people were expelled from tent cities and squats from 2023-2024, a 40% rise from the same period two years ago.

Many evicted migrants are offered places in other parts of France following a push by the national government to “unclog” the Paris region, which has the highest demand for emergency housing in the country.

Speaking of the plan in May 2023, then-housing minister Olivier Klein said homeless people would be relocated to other regions and linked the push to the Games, saying hotels were terminating government contracts that provided emergency housing to make way for tourists.

Carrying backpacks and small children, hundreds of people sleeping on the streets of Paris climbed aboard buses surrounded by armed police The latest group of migrants and homeless people to be driven out of the city ahead of the opening ceremony of the 2024 Olympics.

The group of largely African migrants headed for the fringes of the city in buses paid for by the French government and into temporary lodging until at least the end of the Games. While some living on the streets were happy to have a roof over their head for the night, few knew what lay ahead once the world’s eyes were off Paris.

The Paris 2024 Olympics will kick off with an opening ceremony on July 26, and the Games will last until August 11.