French solidarity forces action on homelessness

The plight of France's estimated 100,000 homeless people has leapt from the bottom to the top of the country's political agenda in just two weeks. Homeless families and their supporters have taken over an upscale office building in Paris and set up a mock housing ministry in a bid to keep housing rights on politicians' agendas before spring presidential elections. The plight of France's homeless and others living in poor conditions becomes a hot-button issue each winter. But with presidential elections on the horizon this year, it has taken on real political meaning and has encouraged groups to take action. A group calling itself the Children of Don Quixote recently set up tents for the homeless in the French capital and invited Parisians to spend the night in them. The squatters, including at least 10 families, took over the empty building in central Paris sometime last week. By Jan. 2, families were busy outfitting the offices with bathtubs, showers and kitchens. Groups that organized the takeover were using some floors for their "ministry" to press politicians to take action. In mid-December, Augustin Legrand, his brothers and a couple of friends established Children of Don Quixote as an illegal encampment of homeless and sympathizers in the center of Paris. Within days, the double line of red tents was dominating news bulletins. Similar encampments have now sprung up in almost every large town in France, from Lille to Nice. Dozens of otherwise well-housed, middle-class French have been spending nights in tents along the canal, in the 10th Arrondissement, in solidarity with the country's growing number of "sans domicile fixe," or "without fixed address," the French euphemism for people living on the street. The bleak yet determinedly cheerful sleep-in has embarrassed the French government into doing something about the problem. "Each person should have the minimum dignity in a country as rich as this," said Bleunwenn Manrot, 28. Manrot drove more than six hours with friends from her home in Carhaix, Brittany, to spend New Year's Eve along the canal. A statement from the Right to Housing group said the action was taken on behalf of all those who could not find a proper dwelling, including people expelled from their apartments or artists with irregular incomes. Most of the approximately 50 people who took up residence in the Paris office building had been living in cheap hotels. Squatter organizers said the building, in a trendy neighborhood across the street from the old Bourse, or stock exchange, was unoccupied for years before they "requisitioned" it. "We cannot accept that there are buildings that are empty while there are people freezing outside," said Alexandre Archenoult, a coordinator for Macaq, one of the three housing rights groups behind the takeover. In the past week, political parties from the center-right to the far-left have signed up for the six-point "Canal Saint-Martin" charter, calling for "an end to the [homelessness] scandal which shames a country like ours." The only parties to refuse to sign are the far-right National Front and the ultra-Catholic conservative Mouvement pour la France. In his televised new year address to the nation, President Jacques Chirac ordered his government to prepare snap legislation to make the right to a home legally enforceable in France. This was one of six points in a charter drawn up by the Children of Don Quixote. Socialist presidential candidate Ségolène Royal, who makes a point of making as few promises as possible, said that she would make housing one of the centerpieces of her presidency if she is elected in May. Each large town would be forced to create an emergency shelter capable of housing 1,000 people, she said.