A/HRC/43/43/Add.2 was told that only 10 per cent of 115 calls placed were answered by an operator, and that of the calls answered, only 29 per cent resulted in the provision of accommodation. 61. The Special Rapporteur called 115 several times during her visit. She waited for more than 20 minutes on each call, and finally managed to speak to an operator on her fourth attempt, only to be told that there was no emergency accommodation available in Paris that night. Despite being widely known, those in need have stopped calling 115. In a 2017 survey, 67 per cent of persons living on the street had never even tried to call or had given up. 47 Eighty per cent of those who are provided with emergency accommodation receive a place for just one night (E/C.12/FRA/CO/4, para. 35), forcing them to repeat the 115 process all over again in the morning. The system not only creates intense instability for those living homelessness, but also consumes their days as they spend hours calling 115 with, at best, only a sliver of hope that they will sleep in a warm bed two nights in a row. 62. The lack of sufficient emergency accommodation has undermined the unconditional right to emergency accommodation. The Special Rapporteur spoke to women fleeing domestic violence, lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex youth no longer welcome in their family homes, migrant and refugee families sleeping on pavements and many others who had called for days and even months before having their call answered, and who expressed their desperation at being incapable of securing their unconditional right to shelter. 63. The Special Rapporteur is concerned that the Government is more focused on shortterm solutions (gymnasiums and hotels) rather than long-term housing with the necessary social support. Such short-term shelters are a poorly equipped substitute for housing and at times families are forced to separate in order to be sheltered. Moreover, many who find accommodation over the winter must return to the streets by April. At the end of 2017/18 winter period, 36 per cent of those who had received shelter were not provided with an alternative durable housing solution, in contravention of article L345-2-3 of the Social Action and Family Code and the right to adequate housing under international law. 64. The Special Rapporteur is also deeply concerned by the use of hotel rooms as a longerterm solution for people living in homelessness, a view shared by the Government, though the policy remains in place. She visited several families living in hotels, including a woman from Guinea undergoing the asylum process who was living in a hotel room with her infant child. She had been provided a small, damp, windowless room on the ground floor, adjacent to the hotel bar’s toilets, which were in regular use. As a survivor of sexual violence during her harrowing journey to France, the noise of men walking to and from the toilets exacerbated her trauma. 65. The Special Rapporteur also met a young family of five sheltered in two non-adjoining hotel rooms for over a year. The children were too young to sleep alone, so the entire family had to sleep in one small room. They had access to shared bathrooms, but lacked access to a kitchen or laundry room. As one resident stated plainly: “How can a hotel room feel like a home?” Frequently, residents have to move from one hotel to another, disrupting education and contributing to tension within the family. 48 In extreme cases, children are placed in childcare institutions because of their parents’ inadequate housing situation. This prospect causes parents extreme stress and anxiety. 66. The Special Rapporteur was pleased to learn that with support of the national Government, social services associations in eight cities, including Bordeaux, Dijon, Lyons and Grenoble, were embarking on Housing First programmes modelled after a pilot programme, which had an 85 per cent housing-retention success rate. Furthermore, she welcomes the fact that homeless persons or residents of informal settlements have the right to a formal address (domiciliation) in order to be able to access social benefits and exercise other rights. 49 She is, however, concerned that social welfare centres have occasionally 47 48 49 12 Ibid, p. 9. See Defender of Rights, “Adolescents sans-logement: grandir en famille dans une chambre d’hôtel”, February 2019. Social Action and Family Code, art. L264-1.