Number of homeless people rises in France

One of France's leading charitable organizations involved in the fight against poverty has given a gloomy picture of the nation's housing situation, warning that the number of people living in poor conditions is on the rise across the country.

The Abbe-Pierre Foundation, also known as FAP, estimates that the number of homeless people in France now amounts to 330,000, which is 30,000 more than in the previous year, and an upsurge of about 130 percent compared to 2012.

The foundation's annual report, published on Wednesday, underlined what it claims is the French government's insufficient efforts to tackle the issue, reported the Agence France-Presse news service.

The foundation cited a decline in access to public housing, which it blames on what it claims are President Emmanuel Macron's poor housing policies.

"The gap has rarely seemed so wide between, on the one hand, the state of poor housing and, on the other hand, the insufficiency of public responses to make housing affordable," the foundation said.

Its study said that, in total, 4.15 million people are living in poor housing conditions in France. It said this includes people "without personal accommodation, those living in a place far too small for them, or deprived of basic comforts (kitchen, toilets, heating)".

The number living in poor housing increases to 12.1 million when those struggling with unpaid bills or in fuel poverty are included, which is more than a sixth of the population, according to calculations by FAP.

It said that 2022 was "a blank year, or almost, in the fight against poor housing", and claimed government aid distributed to alleviate the impact of inflation is not appropriately directed.

The minister delegate for the city and housing, Olivier Klein, was expected to respond to the criticism later on Wednesday, and to present a new housing plan.

Shortly after his 2017 election, Macron said he no longer wanted "to have women and men in the streets, in the woods, or lost".Within months, the government launched a five-year plan to fight and reduce homelessness.

However, a report by Al Jazeera last summer noted that French authorities have spent years cutting back on public housing spending, leading to chronic shortages across key cities.

It cited an employee working in the public housing sector as saying there are 10 candidates for every vacant social house in the Paris region of Ile-de-France.

Farida Musayeva, an employee of the Action Logement, a company that builds public housing in cooperation with local governments, told Al Jazeera that "more than 2 million people are waiting for public housing", and that this number is increasing.