Night of Solidarity in Paris on 22nd January 2026

The Night of Solidarity is an initiative, organised by the City of Paris, which has counted the number of homeless people, each year since 2018, and was extended to a metropolitan scale under the coordination of Grand Paris Metropolis in 2022. Its aim is to improve knowledge about the number of homeless people and to raise awareness among key players and the general public of issues linked to this large scale, severe exclusion. This study presents the results of the count within Paris. It is supplemented by a study focusing on results in the 34 participating municipalities of Grand Paris Metropolis.

The majority of people counted in Paris were met in the streets. The locations where the highest number of people were found remained unchanged: the outskirts of the city, embankments of the Peripherique ring road, railway stations, major metro and RER stations, the Halles area, the woods at Bois de Vincenne and Bois de Boulogne. Nearly half of those encountered (49%) had no shelter, 32% were sleeping in tents, 11% in huts or vehicles, 9% were in other circumstances or still on the move. Most of the people were alone when encountered (58%), but the proportion of people in groups had increased since previous editions: in 2026 there was a marked presence of large-scale encampments.

Women represented 11% of the people counted in Paris, fewer than the previous year, linked to the shelter previsions provided by the "Grand Froid" plan and exceptional measures taken by the City of Paris. Those aged between 25 to 54  made up three-quarters of the people met. Half (50%) of the those questioned said they were homeless for the first time, mainly because they had arrived in Paris with no accommodation or that they had not previously had accomodation. Nearly half (49%) had been living abroad before arriving in Paris.

The type of needs had not changed much compared to previous years, even though an increasing demand for places to be listened to and to discuss was observed in 2026. The needs least met involved access to a place to learn French (79% of those indicating the need did not have access), access to a place to look for work (7%), access to storage space (69%) and access to support in administrative procedures and access to rights (54%). Only just over one third of those questioned reported receiving social support (35%), a lower percentage than in 2025 (39%) and particularly low among the young 18 to 24 year age group (26%). Also, over half of the respondents stated that they had no address or registered residence for receiving post or did not know if they did (55%). Findings regarding use of the 115 helpline also confirmed results of previous surveys: more than seven out of ten homeless people did not call or no longer called the helpline (72%), either because they had never contacted it or because they'd given up trying.

The results and trends observed, highlight how important it is to annually monitor the number,  profiles, geographic distribution and needs of homeless people, underlining how indispensable it is that the counting procedure be renewed each winter. A new Night of Solidarity is planned at the beginning of 2027.