Top > Business > 2007 > January > 2007-01-23

France to Adopt Right to Housing

The French government announced Wednesday, its plans to constitute a legal right to housing, in response to a campaign the homeless are running in the country. French Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin said in a press conference that in January 17. A bill will be presented to the cabinet. De Villepin said he hopes the parliament will adopt the law before it is dispersed to make way for the presidential elections due to take place in April this year. If the bill is in fact signed into law, France will become the second European nation to grant its citizens the right to housing, after Scotland, which in acted the right to housing in its 2003 Homeless Law.

French President, Jacques Chirac, used his new year`s speech to promise swift government action regarding the right to housing. A demand claimed by protesters, who have opened a press campaign in support of the country`s 100 thousand homeless. De Villepin said he`d like to see the enforced as of 2008, saying that that is the minimum time required to make sure the worst off individuals in French society receive appropriate housing. The government intends to have the law include all French citizens by 2012.

A survey conducted by the charity organization, Emmaus, found that one million French citizens do not have a permanent place of residence and 100 thousand of them live in the streets, with the rest living in camping sites, hotels and shelters. The survey also stipulates that another 2 million citizens have housing "problems."