However, in such a high-welfare country where the lower middle class has guaranteed food, clothing, housing and transportation, there are 300,000 people living on the streets, and about 4 million people in 2 million families are waiting for low-cost public housing...

Although France’s high welfare is not as high as that of “Nordic Paradise”, it is second to none in the entire EU . Not only does it have a “35 hours a week” work system, but it also has a staggering “employee dismissal” that is almost impossible for companies to implement. System" as well as government-provided rental subsidies, food subsidies, childcare subsidies and free higher education for all.

It is such a high-welfare country with the lower middle class and guaranteed food, clothing, housing and transportation, but there are 300,000 people living on the streets, and about 4 million people from 2 million families are waiting for low-cost public housing...

France also has There's a housing crisis.

Paris, under the gorgeous modern architecture, countless tourists shuttle through this elite city of Western civilization.

But tourists will always hear similar voices inadvertently - "Don't change, sir."

When changing coins or browsing around, people on the streets of Paris can often meet people on the streets. People who were sleeping and living in the open dragged their tired bodies and reached out to him to beg for money.

Paris is Paris after all, and although there are beggars here, if they don’t ask for money, tourists can easily mistake them for tourists walking around with suitcases.

is decent, neat and laid-back, except that he has no house and no money.

Few tourists know why France, a country with high welfare, has so many homeless people.

Isn’t France a high welfare country?

France is indeed a high welfare country. Even as early as 15 years ago, France classified housing as a basic right of citizens and passed legislation to provide for "enforceable housing rights". This is called the "DALO Law" .

In the "DALO Law", the French Parliament formulated a series of "priorities" to ensure that the most vulnerable and needy French people have the highest priority in obtaining public low-rent housing.

However, time has changed, and now the "DALO Law" has become a mere document in name only, and has been proven to be "ineffective" in actual judicial practice.

According to statistics from a French housing-related foundation, the homeless population in France has reached 300,000 in 2021, three times that of twenty years ago. In 2021, there were even 146 children born on the streets, four times the number in 2017.

There are many reasons for the increasing number of homeless people in France.

From a market perspective, with the development of the Internet economy, the French rental market has also enjoyed a wave of dividends.

After the rise of the foreign online accommodation software Airbnb (Airbnb), France, as a popular tourist destination in the world, has naturally become a market that the company focuses on. Today, Airbnb has 350,000 units in France, of which With 65,000 properties located in Paris, France has become Airbnb’s second-largest market after the United States.

The homeless in France mainly gather in big cities like Paris and Marseille - only with enough flow of people can the homeless beg for enough money. At the same time, metropolitan areas are financially better off and can provide more benefits. The same is true for

tenants. Macron previously stated that the housing problem in the suburbs has achieved 86% of the preset goals. In metropolitan areas, it only reached 67%.

The rise of Airbnb has directly led to a shortage of housing in the market. Before this, although the rental price of private residences was much higher than that of low-rent housing, France had complete housing subsidy benefits (based on family size, Different amounts of subsidies are given according to the number of children), so the French at the bottom can still afford to rent.

Due to the rise of Airbnb, online travel accommodation has occupied a large number of residences and has been almost controlled for a long time. According to statistics from the French Abbé Pierre Foundation, there have only been about four properties waiting for guests on Airbnb in recent years. It is used on 1/2 of the days (actually due to traffic restrictions due to the new crown pandemic).

In addition, after the COVID-19 pandemic, while the United States released a large amount of water to provide relief, EU countries also adopted similar measures. Therefore, in the context of international and domestic double inflation, France’s housing prices have also risen, thus driving up prices in the rental market. Also rising.

This has also led to many French people becoming homeless during the new crown pandemic.

However, market reasons are only one of the main reasons for the housing crisis in France. Another main reason is that the French Macron government has been cutting benefits, and housing benefits are also "cut".

In 2012, France’s public housing expenditure accounted for 2% of GDP, but in 2020, when Macron was in power, this figure was only 1.63% - the gap in total funds is actually even greater, because France’s GDP in 2012 was $2.68 trillion, compared with $2.60 trillion in 2020.

The consequence of this is that more and more French people are in need of public housing.

In the past five years, the demand for public housing in France has reached 2.2 million households and more than 4.1 million people, which is five times the growth rate of the French population and twice the number of public housing under construction.

In Paris, which is densely populated and has the largest number of homeless people and tenants, there are an average of 10 waiting lists for each public housing unit, most of which have so-called "DALO priority" - which is why the "DALO law" has become The reason for this is that when a large part of the demanders have "DALO priority", there will naturally be no practical "priority".

So why did Macron cut housing spending and put 300,000 French people on the streets?

In fact, in the early days of taking office, Macron announced a plan to combat and reduce homelessness - you read that right, although homeless people are homeless, Macron not only wants to "provide Help to reduce” while also “fighting”.

Because the homeless in France are not necessarily French, especially in Paris, they are more likely to be foreign refugees.

Macron announced this measure in 2017. It was the second year after the refugee crisis began, when France was suffering from refugees.

And because the European Union had opened its doors before, millions of Middle Eastern refugees poured in, which directly caused the shelter institutions to be overcrowded, and countless refugees could only sleep on the streets of metropolitan areas with good welfare.

This is why Macron used the words "reduce" and "attack" at the same time, which was intended to express his attitude towards refugees to voters.

Except that French public opinion began to turn right after 2017. The EU originally accepted refugees to solve the problem of low-end labor shortages in Germany, France and other countries. Therefore, the French government did not restore public housing expenditures (including rental subsidies and public housing construction) to 2% of 2012. In order to encourage refugees to find jobs, Rent a house by yourself.

Nowadays, it is difficult for France to spend precious available funds on residential construction due to the potential global economic risks caused by the new crown pandemic and the stagflation problem in the United States.

Moreover, the fiscal deficit caused by high welfare has become a chronic problem in France after the 2008 economic crisis. Macron's successful re-election is also related to his reduction of welfare and loosening restrictions on enterprises during his first term, thereby boosting the economy.

Therefore, France’s housing crisis should be unlikely to be solved in the short term.

In order to cope with the criticism, the French government has not done nothing - the Paris government announced that the "43,000 homeless beds" established at the beginning of the new crown pandemic will be postponed for another ten months.

The homeless man asked for a room, but was given a bed...

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