Nearly 20,000 people were evicted in the Ile-de-France region between April 2023 and September 2024, in the run-up to and during the Paris Olympics, according to a report drawn up by a collective of French NGOs.
In a report released this Monday, the Revers de la médaille collective reported that 260 "informal" living sites – camps, shanty towns and squats – were cleared between 26 April 2023 and 30 September 2024.
Over the same period, at least 19,526 people were evicted from their homes – an increase of 33 percent compared to between 2021 and 2022.
The report also highlighted the number of minors on the streets has increased significantly, with at least 4,550 children evicted from their dwellings – three times more than during the 2021-2022 period.
In a recent post on social media, the collective documented the eviction of minors from their camp in the tunnel near Paris's Les Halles shopping district, stating: "Police but no solution. The wandering continues".
'Stain' on Olympics legacy
Paul Alauzy, coordinator of Médecins du Monde and spokesman for the collective referred to the past year as exceptional in terms of the number of evictions.
Alauzy said the rise in evictions would leave an "indelible stain" on the legacy of the 2024 Olympics.
Prior to the Paris Olympics, the collective pushed for a round of consultations with all the parties involved in organising the Games.
The aim was to draw up a joint plan for the Olympics that would help combat social exclusion and deliver on Paris 2024's promise of an unprecedented positive social legacy.
However – despite numerous meetings and a series of concrete proposals with figures – no concerted plan was ever drawn up.
With a view to the hosting of the Olympics in the future, the associations are recommending the "systematic consultation of host populations, access to balanced, free and high-quality information, and the organisation of open consultations with civil society much earlier than the Games".
"The simple fact of organising the Games every year in the same place ... rather than inviting the whole world to go [to the host city] for such a short time could address many problems, from social cleansing to gentrification and ecological factors," the collective added.
