In January 2024, the seventh edition of Nuit de la Solidarité took place in Greater Paris, to count the homeless in the capital, on the initiative of the City of Paris. Initial estimates put the number of homeless this year at 4,277, including 3,492 on the streets of Paris and 785 in the Greater Paris metropolitan area. This very high figure is well above last year's figure of 3,633, which has been rising steadily.
To get the most accurate count possible, Paris City Hall is asking thousands of volunteers to form teams and scour the capital, as well as"parking lots, metro stations, RER stations, hospitals, parks and gardens", in less than three hours, to count the homeless and fill in anonymous questionnaires with them, to find out more about their situation. In the Greater Paris Metropolis, over 4,000 people took part in 32 cities. And 89% of rough sleepers were men.
While the health crisis had greatly exacerbated the number of people living in precarious and exclusionary conditions, rising inflation and the economic situation are still having an impact on the people of Paris this year. Finding a place to live is sometimes a miracle, and the number of places available in shelters is no longer sufficient. Away from the streets, people without accommodation were found on the embankments of the Paris ring road, in campsites, in parks and gardens, in RATP and SNCF stations (+74%) and in parking lots.
More than 100 people were counted in two communes: Saint-Denis (192 vs. 133 in January 2023) and Aubervilliers (105 vs. 48 in January 2023).
