Empty homes may be requisitioned

EMPTY homes may be requisitioned this winter to house homeless people, the housing minister says.

Cécile Duflot said the rarely-invoked ministerial power to make requisitions may come into play this year because she is “convinced of the seriousness of the situation” for the homeless.

She said there were “buildings that have been empty for years, doing nothing, while people, families, are in the streets”.

Duflot said she is also asking colleagues if empty state buildings can be used – old offices, barracks, hospitals etc.

Associations working with the homeless say there has been a rise in demand for emergency housing in recent weeks. This weekend temperatures dropped and a homeless man is thought to have been killed by the cold in Paris as temperatures in the capital fell to 2.3C.

With just a few days left to go before the start of the “winter truce”, when people cannot be evicted during the cold months, homelessness body Droit au Logement (DAL) said the minister’s attitude gives them hope.

The body, which supports requisitions, said it had been “faced with a brick wall” in recent years, but the minister had told them in a meeting “she was favourable towards applying the requisition law and was working on it”.

Nonetheless her comments are “a bit late because winter is coming,” a DAL spokesman said.

DAL held a rally in Paris with around 200 supporters, including actress Josiane Balasko, calling for the plan to be put in place. It estimates there are 2.4 million empty buildings in France.

Requisitions were last used during Jacques Chirac’s presidency (1995-2007) and are allowed for in a law dating from 1945.

The winter truce runs from November 1 to March 15.