In September 2024, the Olympic Games in Paris will leave behind a “material legacy”: 1,667 accommodations that will house athletes and journalists during the competitions will be offered to students after the international event, announced Minister of Higher Education, Sylvie Retailleau, in Le Parisien on October 26. 80% of these accommodations are located in Seine-Saint-Denis, while the rest are in Villeneuve-d’Ascq (Nord), in the Lille metropolis.
The management of these accommodations will be entrusted to private organizations, particularly social housing providers, and not to regional centers for university and school works (Crous), according to the minister’s entourage.
Will this unexpected news help improve the somewhat tarnished reputation of the Olympics among students? In the spring of 2023, the academies of Paris, Créteil, and Versailles were asked by the Olympic Games organizing committee to vacate 3,000 university accommodations out of the 22,000 in Ile-de-France during the events, displacing the usual tenants. This initiative was suspended by the judge of interim orders of the Administrative Court of Paris on August 31, on the grounds that Crous is not allowed to “organize the vacancy of these accommodations” in advance. Only vacant rooms as of July 1, 2024, can be rented to the committee, according to the provisions of the law of March 26, 2018, related to the preparation of the event.
However, a challenge has been brought before the Council of State by the Crous of Paris and is still pending, as The World learned from the Crous, who do not wish to provide further details on the arguments put forward. The ministry, on the other hand, believes that the judge of interim orders did not “invalidate the principle on the merits, but on the form” and affirms that “everything will be done according to the rules of law.”
The minister confirmed that a maximum of 2,200 students will need to be relocated. The relocation will be done “as close as possible to their place of study” and will result in the payment of a flat-rate grant of 100 euros. Two tickets for Olympic events will also be offered to each of the affected students.
Two options were possible, according to Sylvie Retailleau’s entourage, who would like to “put an end to the controversy.” The first option was to distribute accredited public officials for the Olympics among the 30% of vacant places in the residences during the summer period. “But this choice would have involved cohabiting these people, who will live with shifted schedules according to the competitions, with students occupying a room because they are taking exams or working during the summer, which is not ideal,” they explain.
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