France, the Caravan of the badly housed and homeless

From September 22 through October 5, we, the badly housed, homeless, and housing rights volunteers, have decided to take our campaign on the road from Clermont-Ferrand to Strasbourg, passing through Saint Etienne, Lyon, Grenoble, Bourg, Dijon, Besançon, Colmar, and finally Strasbourg. In each city, along with local associations, we will hold legal hotlines on housing right, the slums, tenants rights, we will take drastic measures, we will debate at public meetings……We must encourage those touched by this crisis and all who support them to act….

A ROOF IS RIGHT!

We will advocate :

• The immediate end to evictions with no alternative housing.
• The application of the law of requisition of vacant property
• The lowering of rent and utilities as well as land speculation and property
• Putting into effect the DALO Act (french law on enforceable housing right) without restriction, and improving upon it
• The termination of all HLM demolition and the raising of rent of social housing, achieving 160,000 social housing units each year in the areas having the most crisis

The worst housing crisis in 50 years :

The housing crisis accelerates in our country as the social crisis hits hard. Never have the rents or property prices been so high in France. Landlords and speculators have profited and continue to do so.

In spite of hearing about prices lowering , no tenant has noticed and access to property is still impossible. Prices have stopped climbing, however they are still not financially accessible, while misery has spread!

Subsidized housing is faltering , the State’s housing budget is on the wagon, evictions are on the rise and modest households hit by unemployment or reduced salaries are having more and more difficulty paying rent, utilities and their monthly taxes! The number of homeless is on the rise, the slums are reborn; the housing problem now encompasses the young, migrants, the poor, as well as other sectors of the population.

The government, in this crisis context , chose to favor rent and utility hikes of subsidized housing units, to reduce the time allotted before eviction, to pursue the tearing down of popular subsidized housing districts, to finance indirect aid to promoters in order to sell their stock, to invalidate the DALO Act, to jeopardize the most vulnerable tenants….it suppresses those excluded from housing and attempts to punish any campaigns in order to shut up any contentions from those inadequately housed, homeless, or from tenants, and to forbid any housing alternative such as mobile housing,….in vain

The regions effected and other public authorities remain powerless, even inactive, where as the general counsel and the city government is going to promote expensive housing, as that brings in money…

All of Europe is effected by the same problems , the housing crisis, property and land speculation, skyrocketing rents, all creating a pitiful environment for the most modest, those living in central regions, handicapped, the unemployed, migrants, the poor, and small farmers…the real estate bubble fueled by the banks and the governments were also actively supported by the European Commission which encourages the dismantling of housing social policy in the name of free competition and free market…We are going to Strasbourg, address the European deputies, and make our anger heard.

Contacts : +33 06 46 30 64 37 – 06 1 5 58 48 49

First supporters : AFVS, HALEM, No-vox, Solidaire, International Alliance of Inhabitants ...

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