PARIS

French opposition deputies are condemning the ongoing expulsion of the homeless from the capital region in the runup to the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris.

"The homeless are being expelled from hotels to keep all the rooms for the Olympics," opposition France Unbowed Deputy Aurelie Trouve told Anadolu on Tuesday, citing testimonies from local social aid groups, adding that more and more women and children are sleeping on the streets.

Last May, Housing Minister Olivier Klein said: "Many Parisian hoteliers indeed no longer wish to accommodate the homeless, as they expect an influx of clients during the Rugby World Cup and the Olympics."

Government officials have denied the decision to move the homeless out of the Paris region is based on the Games, set to take place this July and August.

But in response to questions from Anadolu, Mathilde Panot, the head of French Unbowed, said Tuesday: “Let's remember that (President) Emmanuel Macron had promised in 2017 that within two years, no one would be sleeping on the streets. However, we have a number that is exploding, especially of children sleeping on the streets.”

Vacant housing needed, rent caps

At a press conference, Anadolu questioned the deputies about the situation of homeless people still sleeping at Paris metro entrances and on the street amid special cold weather plans set in motion this week by the greater Paris region.

"We reiterate our call for the requisition of vacant housing. We obviously support the capping of rent prices more broadly, which also helps to combat poor housing and homelessness," Trouve said.

She stressed the need to act in the face of the housing crisis, underlining the deterioration of the emergency housing, already aggravated by cold temperatures and the expulsion of the homeless, in the runup to the summer games.

Homeless death toll

As the deputies were decrying the homeless crisis, on Tuesday, a woman was found dead under her blanket on the street in Carpentras, Vaucluse, in southeastern France, and the lifeless body of a 69-year-old man was discovered in a cellar where he had taken refuge to escape the cold, in Boulogne, in the Paris region.

In a February 2023 report, the Abbe Pierre Foundation estimated the number of homeless people in France at 330,000, including a growing number of children.