I'm guessing that air conditioning would be part of the minimum construction standards insisted upon by the French government.
If the bums who occupy these free homes emulate the norms of French culture, there will be lots of 'dead old folks' as you say anyhow. You may recall the scores of dead grandmas who turned up after their offspring returned home from vacations last summer as well as the year before. It's seems that the prevailing fashion is to go off and enjoy yourself with the expectation that the State will look after your parents in their tiny, sweltering apartments.
sounds a lot like Minnesota, just change 'sweltering' to 'freezing'.