The state is abandoning student dormitories

Emi begins her second academic year at a Parisian commercial college.

This young Parisian has been given a studio in a student dormitory in northeast Paris.

She paid for the reservation, deposit, insurance and first rent, totaling almost 1,000 euros.

But on the day of the start of the school year, when she arrives at the regional center for student and school work (Crous), the government body responsible for managing student accommodation and university restaurants in France, she is told there are no places available and she must wait until a place becomes available.

On the phone, she is indignant: "I'm on the street. Is it okay for me to pay a fee but not have a place to live? "

They have no choice but to stay with a friend until a studio becomes available again.

This situation is typical of many students who struggle to find affordable housing in student residences.

In the last sixty years, the number of Crous student dormitories has increased 2.3 times, while the number of students has increased 10.5 times: there are now approximately 2.9 million students and about 173,000 available beds in Crous dormitories for the 2022-2023 academic year.

In other words, there are 17 students per studio in 2023, up from three and half students per studio sixty years ago.

Sanitation problems, rising rents, private sector development and staff shortages add to the shortage of spaces.

Syndicates and students have been warning for years that there is a lack of political will and funding to meet these needs.

Eleanor Schmitt, spokesperson for the Union Étudiante syndicate, summarizes, "There are many statements, but the funds needed for such a serious situation do not match it...

In the summer of 2022, Noor, a political science student, applied for housing to get a studio in Mulhouse.

She has a 7th echelon - the higher the echelon, the more students are prioritized"I was shocked, I didn't expect this. "

They had to move into private housing that costs 100 euros more, with poor soundproofing, mouse corpses and no shutters.

The glut of hostels varies by region and the shortage of housing in cities.

While Strasbourg has 15 rooms per student, Angers has 18 rooms per student.

Social workers at the local university are also warning about the number of young people on the street.

Once Emmanuel Macron began his first term as president, he promised to build 60,000 housing units.

Six years later, we can say that only half of the housing has been built (about 36,000).

Last year, according to the Crous report, only 2,990 spaces were built.

Some areas with smaller university complexes are not always accompanied by student housing.

This is the case, for example, in Carcassonne, Narbonne or Dunkirk, where several thousand students have to look for other solutions.