In spring of last year, Esporato* came home to find his life had been upended. After spending one week in hospital due to health problems linked to his diabetes, the 60-year-old made his way back to his flat and found a note on his door. As he moved closer to inspect what was written on it, he saw the number 115 and the word “Samusocial” scribbled on the paper.
Short on rent payments after losing his job months earlier, he had been evicted in the blink of an eye and was now being encouraged by his landlord to call the emergency services for homeless people in Paris. Esporato was eventually placed in temporary emergency housing in a hotel on April 16, 2024.
But the room he has been living in for “exactly nine months and 21 days” is not suited to his needs. Esporato has lived with hemiplegia since he was born. His disability means he has significantly reduced mobility in his right arm and leg, with many muscles now atrophied as a result. “I am on the ground floor but I can’t use the shower. There is nothing for me to hold on to, no handles on the walls, nothing,” the 60-year-old said.
“I’ve asked the managers of the hotel if there are rooms suited to people with disabilities or reduced mobility countless times. I’ve asked the emergency services who placed me here as well. A Samusocial agent even came to see the room for himself and agreed that it wasn’t possible for me to shower. But nothing has changed,” he added, clearly at his wit’s end.
A searing report published on February 3 by the French organisation Foundation for Housing the Disadvantaged, which changed its name from Abbé Pierre Foundation in the wake of sexual violence allegations against its founder, took stock of the country’s poor housing in France and those most affected by it. Spanning a whopping 340 pages, the study found the issue had reached a boiling point in France, and those bearing the brunt are the 12 million people in the country living with disabilities – be they invisible or visible, mental or physical.
One quarter of the 1.3 million disabled households in France are affected by housing issues like overcrowding, fuel poverty, rent arrears and a severe lack of comfort.
Lack of accessible housing
Patricia Martinez and her husband Jose have been living in a one-bedroom rental in the Basque Country city of Bayonne for the past seven years. The flat is in a social housing unit that is not adapted to their needs. “The entrance doors to the building are extremely heavy, the lift is tiny, the corridors in our flat are too narrow for my husband to turn around in his wheelchair, and in order to get to the balcony there is a 20cm step,” the outraged 57-year-old exclaimed. “I’ve been asking for the flat to be disability-friendly for ages, but nothing has been done.”
Martinez stopped working in 2002 after a back operation left her with severe pains. Her husband has been suffering from a rare genetic disorder that causes progressive muscle loss called Steinert myotonic dystrophy since he was 32. His condition is degenerative and he now needs to use a wheelchair to get around. “I’ve been taking care of him for more than two decades and that has been very difficult, to say the least. When I get back pains, I can’t leave the bed, so I have to rely on carers to help me out,” Martinez said. Like Esporato, Martinez’s patience has run out. “We are not asking for the moon, you know. I just want a place my husband can move around in and where he can access the outdoors more easily.”
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People with disabilities are disproportionately affected by poor housing for a number of reasons. Households with at least one disabled resident of working age earn less than the general population on average. They also face significantly more discrimination than people without disabilities, and have unique needs when it comes to the set-up of their accommodation or the support they require.
And when they do find housing, it is often inadequate. Some 6.4 percent of disabled people reported a distinct lack of comfort and faced severe overcrowding in their households, according to the study carried out by the Foundation for Housing the Disadvantaged.
“Living in suitable housing is fundamental for people with disabilities to feel included, autonomous and integrated in society,” stressed Christophe Robert, the director general who has worked at the foundation for 20 years.
Since many people with disabilities in France face lower incomes, they often apply for social housing to curb high rent costs, like Martinez. But while authorities claim 18 percent of this type of housing is considered accessible, only 6 percent is “accessible and adapted” to their needs.
Vicious cycle
Esporato worked as a tax officer for many years but began running into money problems when he lost his job in 2023. As the months went by, he was finding it harder and harder to make ends meet. When he made a signed commitment with his landlord to pay back the rent he owed, he thought he would be safe.
But as his debt piled up, he became more vulnerable to being kicked out of his apartment. “I knew that I was in a bad situation but I never thought they would put me in the street,” he said.
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For a person with a disability, who is already in a precarious financial situation, losing their job can have a snowball effect. In Esporato’s case it can also take a serious toll on a person’s life, which is why the foundation is calling for an increase in housing subsidies.
They are also pressing the French government to adopt a “housing first” policy, inspired by the Finnish approach. The initiative relies on housing as a basic human right, meaning that if a person in Finland is homeless, the government will prioritise giving them shelter before trying to help with other problems. Seeing as 26 percent of disabled people between the ages of 15 and 64 live below the poverty line in France, they are more vulnerable to homelessness.
However, despite being one of the French government’s “top priorities” and since a 2005 law aimed at creating “equal opportunities, participation and citizenship for people with disabilities” was passed – disability organisations and activists have repeatedly claimed efforts to combat homelessness have not gone far enough.
‘I just want to take a proper shower’
During a televised debate with far-right contender Marine Le Pen in 2017, ahead of Emmanuel Macron’s first mandate, the future president said he wanted “pragmatic solutions for all those living with disabilities”.
But two years later, the French government passed a housing law (ELAN law) that went directly against Macron’s campaign promise and reduced the requirement for new homes to be accessible to people with disabilities from 100 to 10 percent. The aim was to stimulate the housing market by easing certain regulations, which would encourage a building boom and potentially bring down rent prices.
“Because of the lack of housing adapted to their needs, disabled people are often forced to live with relatives or move into medical establishments,” said Robert.
His colleague Manuel Domergue, who led the Foundation for Housing the Disadvantaged’s 2024 study on poor housing, strongly agreed.
“We need to support disabled people as much as possible in their homes, in their cities, rather than in separate medical establishments. Making housing accessible is a key way of doing that,” Domergue added.
Successive political crises in France have also meant that housing has fallen by the wayside. “We went seven whole months without a housing minister,” said Robert. “Projects to open new temporary housing for homeless people were completely abandoned. There have also been significant cuts to the State budget and therefore housing assistance,” he added.
Any sliver of hope that the Paralympic Games in the summer of 2024 would make Paris less hostile to people with disabilities too has vanished. “The Games were widely covered by the media to make people believe that disabled people are taken into consideration,” fumed Esporato. “But it was a ploy. The government doesn’t give a damn. And that really hurts. I can’t believe that in the 21st century, we don’t have accessible housing,” he added.
The most recent initiative put forth by Macron on February 6 was to fully reimburse all wheelchairs as of December 1, 2025.
Although Martinez and Esporato both said they had had suicidal thoughts as a result of their experiences, neither have thrown in the towel. Both said they will continue to fight. “I am shouting from the rooftops because I am angry,” exclaimed Martinez.
The doctor of Martinez’s husband expects that he has around one more year to live. “Jose is superhuman. The doctor said so himself. I just want him to live the last year of his life comfortably, I don’t want him to stay locked up indoors,” she concluded. “I just want him to be able to get some fresh air.” Outings are rare for the couple, not only because they require Martinez to be in good shape, but because their surroundings are “full of potholes” and “not at all suitable for wheelchair users”.
Despite being in touch with social workers, disability assistants and non-profit organisations, Esperato has not been able to find a place with an accessible shower. For his part, he took to writing to his local MP to try to change things. When he didn’t get a response, he wrote to Macron directly.
“I got a response saying my letter was taken into account,” he said firmly. “Next week, I am going to knock on the door of the Élysée Palace. Wherever I need to go to get an answer.”
“I just want to be able to take a proper shower,” said Esperato.
*Esporato chose to use a pseudonym to guarantee his anonymity.
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