Housing in France
Issue faced: Housing shortage
Impact:
More people are becoming homeless or living in substandard and unhygenic places.
According to a report by the Fondation Abbé Pierre, a highly respected housing advocacy group, 3.5 million people had “inadequate accommodation” (ranging from unsanitary homes to none at all). Among them, the number of homeless, known in France as “SDF”, has reached 142,000, up 50% from ten years ago.
They include a growing number of families, youths, asylum seekers and people suffering from mental illnesses. These homeless people resort to sleeping in the Place de la République, a vast square in central Paris where various associations were handing out mattresses and blankets as part of an event known as “Solidarity Night”.
However, sleeping in the square is far from being a solution. The homeless people have mattresses and sleeping bags but no roof over their heads and this cannot be a permanent solution for all of them.
A picture of three homeless people at the Place de la République. © Photo: Mehdi Chebil
Solutions/strategies used:
Medecins sans Frontiers,a pro-active, French-based international aid group, made available large numbers of bright red tents, and these were pitched, side by side along the canal, and shortly after, along both banks of the River Seine in the very centre of Paris. Homeless from miles away started to come, and on arrival were each given blankets, and a package of basic necessities.
On the opening day of the project, ordinary householders were invited to spend a winter night in one of these tents, and fully connect with the experience. A number accepted and came. They lived with the homeless for long enough to fully re-connect their compassion for the situation, and to want to support the action.
Problems faced while implementing solution:
Of course, right in the centre of the tourist areas of Paris, and bright red to boot, this great encampment gave the most public exposure imaginable to the problem. One can imagine the embarrassment of government and politicians.
Positive impact of solution:
Then, a very interesting phenomenon occurred. Many other similar encampments started to spring up on river banks passing through the centres of many of the larger French cities. Young people, many of whom were only in their early teens (or even younger), had taken the initiative.
The youngsters have called themselves 'The Children of Don Quixote' (Les Enfants de Don Quichotte).
They have taken responsibility for an important issue that the old paradigm world had no solution for. This is a powerful catalytic action for positive change. This protest, and the positive action that goes with it, may spread to many other countries, as the real compassion of community consciousness, as demonstrated by the fearless young people who have supported the action, spreads around the world.
