in Paris, schools allow homeless families to sleep on their premises

As the cold sets in again across the country, elected officials and associations are sounding the alarm: 400 children are sleeping on the streets every night in Paris. To compensate for the lack of emergency accommodation, some schools allow these families to spend the night on their premises.

“Here is the children’s dormitory. This is where I sleepdescribes Rachel. I have to move like this.”she said, putting her words into action, and moving furniture to create a sleeping area for herself and her son, who attends this nursery school in the 18th arrondissement of Paris. “When I arrive, I have to first take the mat to put on the ground, then take the inflatable mattress. And then, suddenly, I pull out a radiator that is there.”

Around forty families from this nursery school are homeless, according to elected officials in the area. A problem that is not unique to the north of Paris. 400 children find themselves without a housing solution and sleep on the streets every night. As temperatures continue to drop, associations and elected officials are sounding the alarm to find accommodation solutions for them. But, for lack of anything better, some families take refuge in schools where their children attend.

“I called 115 every day”

“You could say he spends 24 hours a day at school”, Rachel smiled. Born in Cameroon, she arrived in France in February 2021. Before the mattress at school, it was a hotel room without toilets and even before a cardboard box in front of town hall. “I called 115 every day and they told me: ‘At the moment, there is no place, there is no solution. Call in a week’. We don’t have any paper , we don’t have a home, we find ourselves lost. It’s a bit sad”comments Rachel.

Same despair in the tired voice of Anderson, who came from Mauritius with his wife and their two children. In France for nine months, the couple has been sleeping in a tent. “When it rains, we put it in the subway.” Their boy and daughter are staying with an acquaintance nearby, “but that’s too much. The children, every morning, they cry. ‘Why don’t you sleep with us? Why aren’t you here? We can’t sleep at this lady’s house.” Their daughter abounds: “I’m scared alone with my brother.”

SO, “we decided to come here, sleep at school together, where my daughter goes to schoolsaid Anderson. For the children, it was too hard to be separated.” As a last resort, sleep at school where parents provide them with food, clothing and comfort.

“If it hadn’t been for these people who are here to help us, I don’t know where we would be today. Just a roof, that’s all we ask for.”

Anderson, who came from Mauritius with his wife and two children

at franceinfo

“It allows the State to discard”

Among these people who provide them with help, Manon Lauquet, member of the “A school, a roof” collective, emphasizes that “three families at the same time, like we had in October, it’s quite an unprecedented situation. In fact, this is not a solution. It’s meant to be an emergency solution, possibly for one night perhaps.”

“The real problem is that it appears to be something possible, easy, and that allows the State to rely on parents and teachers who do the work for them”, snaps at Manon Lauquet. The Île-de-France region, initially opposed to this solution, has just announced the opening of five unoccupied Parisian high schools to accommodate families with children.