This year, they will be taken into account. The population census, conducted each year in January and February, will also concern homeless people in 2022, announced Tuesday. INSEE which, for the first time, will cooperate with the agents and volunteers mobilized by 27 municipalities to count the homeless. The operation takes place between Thursday and Friday.

The National Institute of Statistics and Economic Studies, in charge of the census on behalf of the State, will “mutualize” its efforts with the 27 cities mobilized in this operation, he explained in a press release. The objective is to “obtain a reliable count of homeless people” and to “collect information on their socio-demographic characteristics”, the same source said.

>> READ ALSO: Will Toulouse overtake Lyon in number of inhabitants? The census starts

These figures allow you to make appropriate decisions

The population census is organized according to different methods depending on the size of the municipalities: in all cities with more than 10,000 inhabitants, the operation takes place every year but on a sample of 8% of households – the homeless are only concerned every five years. The small municipalities, for their part, are designated in rotation every five years, but “in full”.

A finer knowledge of the population allows communities to “take appropriate decisions” and provides “reference figures for the application of laws and regulations”, argues INSEE.

The operation takes place this year from January 20 to February 26, or until March 12 in Reunion and Mayotte.

But for people who are homeless – or living in caravans, trailers, or mobile homes – the count must be limited to two days, Thursday and Friday, to prevent them from being counted several times because of their mobility.

>> READ ALSO: Haute-Garonne: the prefecture strengthens the winter system for the homeless

“The Night of Solidarity”

Inspired by existing initiatives in New York, Brussels or Athens, the “night of solidarity” was introduced in France in 2018 by the City of Paris. Hundreds of volunteers and social workers criss-cross the city to count people on the street and “better know” their needs, “in order to best adapt the measures of “emergency and social”, explains the municipality of the capital. On March 25, 2021, 2,829 homeless people had been recalled.

In addition to Paris and around ten towns in its suburbs, the operation will also take place this year in Lyon, Marseille, Bordeaux, Toulouse, Rennes, Montpellier, Metz, Mulhouse, Dijon, Tours, Rouen, Arras, Brest, Dunkirk, Lorient, Quimper and Saint-Étienne, a precise the National Union of Communal Centers for Social Action (UNCCAS).

The “night of solidarity” must make it possible to “measure the impact of the health crisis on precarious public”, underlined the UNCCAS, for which “we can only meet a need by having a fine knowledge”.

>> READ ALSO : Occitania: the population is still increasing very strongly in the region according to INSEE