The extreme cold plan intended to protect homeless people with more daytime reception and emergency accommodation at night was activated on Sunday at Paris and the Paris regionlearned theAgence France Presse (AFP) from prefectural sources.
“Without waiting”
In Paris, the Île-de-France prefecture announced that it would trigger this system “taking into account the latest weather forecasts from Météo-France for the coming days” and of “the persistence of negative temperatures at night”.
With the very cold temperatures for several days, the Paris town hall had on Friday urged the prefecture, the only one competent to do so, to trigger “without waiting” this plan in the capital, alerting on the situation “dramatic” several thousand homeless people.
The extreme cold plan allows for an extension of the opening hours of day centers, an increase in patrols and the requisition of places to open emergency accommodation places for the homeless.
“New places will be opened in accommodation centers and in specially mobilized rooms”in addition to the 46,200 accommodation places “made available all year round, 300 additional places open for the entire winter period in Paris and 200 new ones mobilized in recent days”, said the prefecture in a press release.
According to Météo-France forecasts, the cold will persist in the coming days in the Paris region, with temperatures sometimes negative at night and not exceeding 4° during the day.
A plan activated in around thirty departments
The regional prefecture will strengthen patrols, extend day reception hours, and will make hotel rooms available “for families”, she indicated.
“Some day centers will also open as night stops for shelter” and 60 isolated women will be welcomed from Monday “in the rooms of the regional prefecture” located in the 15th arrondissement of the capital, specifies the press release.
The prefectures of Hauts-de-Seine, Seine-Saint-Denis, Seine-et-Marne and Val-d’Oise have announced that they have also activated this plan and the other departments of Île-de-France must also follow.
In Seine-Saint-Denis, the State opened a 60-seat gymnasium “can accommodate all types of public” from Sunday evening, after having already made available 35 additional hotel places “these last few days”according to the department prefecture.
Before Île-de-France, around thirty departments in France have already activated the extreme cold plan.