Seven hundred and thirty-five homeless people will die in France in 2023, a figure of unprecedented magnitude, the Les Morts de la rue Collective announced on Wednesday, October 30, denouncing the“indifference” to which this part of the population is subjected.
This group, which has been carrying out this census since 2012, aims at a “The number is never that high” deaths, compared to 2022, when 624 people died in the streets. Although, he points out, these data must be interpreted “carefully”, “a significant proportion of deaths” escape from the studio.
It is difficult to know precisely the number of homeless people in France: there are around 330,000, according to the Abbé Pierre Foundation, when the last official balance of the National Institute of Statistics and Economic Studies (Insee), in 2012, estimated their number. at 143,000, by 2023, the collective identified 735 dead homeless people; a total that rises to 826 if we include people who were no longer in this situation but were in their lives.
An average age of 49 years.
The group warns of the years of life lost due to homelessness: the average age of death of the people listed is around 49 years, or almost thirty years less than the general population. These are mainly men (86%), although the proportion of women has increased compared to previous years.
Almost a third of deaths occur in public spaces (32%), in places of care (30%), an increase compared to previous years, revealing “a difficulty” access “to receive care or be cared for at the end of life”. 22% are due to external causes, such as transport accidents (5%) or even assaults (5%), while less than 1% are related to the consumption of alcohol or drugs.
The group criticizes several public measures that penalize homeless people, such as the law against illegal occupation of homes or even prefectural decrees that prohibit the distribution of food in certain districts of Paris or Calais.
