France is facing criticism to reduce homelessness as housing shortages continue to plague millions of people in the country, Press TV reports.
NGOs have gathered in Paris to highlight the French government™s failure to address the housing crisis, reminding lawmakers of former President Nicolas Sarkozy™s pledge to eliminate homelessness in France.
œExpulsions have gone up by 50 to 100 percent. This is the biggest reason today behind homelessness and has caused a very big housing crisis. All those who cannot pay their rents are thrown out. Some 30 to 40,000 households have been affected,” said Christophe Robert, the deputy direction of the Abbe Pierre foundation.
Over 130,000 people sleep rough in the European country, a rate that is almost 50,000 more than the figures from the early 2000.
NGOs also claimed that approximately nine million people live in unfit habitations across the country.
Meanwhile, official figures put at three million the number of people who live in extremely unhygienic conditions.
Despite promises of change, housing shortage continues to be one of the biggest failures of successive French governments. This has led to demonstrations across the country.
œWe are being told that there will be state-run funding governization, but it will only start operating in 2016. So our first question we™re asking is what are we going to do until then? Then there are other questions like, who will fund it and what will be its budget?” said Robert.
France is one of a few rich-world economies with a double-digit unemployment rate; other countries with similar problem are eurozone members Spain and Italy, along with South Africa.
In an attempt to lower the country™s huge debt load, the French government has increased taxes and implemented several reforms and spending cuts. However, the measures have proven unproductive since the financial crisis in the eurozone has not been resolved and the euro area is still bogged down in recession.
Europe plunged into a financial crisis in early 2008. The worsening debt crisis has forced the EU governments to adopt harsh austerity measures and tough economic reforms.
GMA/PR
Copyright: Press TV