Paris students decry plans to use housing for Olympics

Student housing can be reserved for Olympic workers during the Paris 2024 games, France’s supreme administrative court has ruled, after the students’ union Solidaires étudiant-e-s mounted a legal challenge against the move.

The Paris CROUS, the French public body that provides subsidised student accommodation, announced last May that leases for 3,263 units in the Île-de-France region would end on 30 June 2024, two months earlier than usual, in order to house Olympic workers for the summer.

Affected students would be provided with alternative accommodation, CROUS said, while the higher education minister, Sylvie Retailleau, later told the newspaper Le Parisien that relocated students would also receive a payment of €100 (£86) and two tickets to Olympic events.

Mounting legal action, Solidaires étudiant-e-s said in a press release that the move would “[put] many students in danger” during a housing crisis. In September, the Paris administrative court suspended the CROUS decision to end leases early; last month, however, the Conseil d’Etat ruled that the plans could proceed, as Reuters reported.

Marion Ogier, a lawyer for the union, said on the social media platform X that the “fight [would continue] in the courts”, adding, “The CROUS must act in the interest of the students, and not the Olympics.”

L’Union Etudiante, a federation of regional students’ unions, said on X that the French president, Emmanuel Macron, had “nothing but contempt and violence towards the most precarious”, declaring, “We will not let this happen.”

Speaking to Times Higher Education, Emmy Marc, federal secretary of L’Union Etudiante, said many students “live in precarity”, with those staying in CROUS accommodation over the summer typically doing so in order to work and earn money that could sustain them throughout the academic year. “Right now, we don’t have any information on where people will be located,” she said. “They can’t seek work until they know where they will live – Paris is big.”

The €100 payment and the Olympic tickets would do little to alleviate students’ concerns, she said: “If they’re working, they won’t be able to attend the games.”

According to Ms Marc: “€100 is nothing – you can’t do anything with €100. Millions go towards the Olympic Games, and students are asked to move for just €100. The government treats us like we are nothing and we don’t matter.”

emily.dixon@timeshighereducation.com