“My name is Martine, I’m 72 years old. Since the end of August 2020, I found myself alone because my husband left for an nursing home. I didn’t want to leave my house. I was thinking about the idea of hosting a young student in a roommate. I had inquired in various associations. One evening, I received a message from a friend who was looking for accommodation for a young person who was in trouble”tells this retiree who lives in a pavilion in the Paris region to the magazine “1:15 p.m. on Saturday” (replay).
“I explained to Benjamin [un étudiant en IUT, âgé de 21 ans] that I went through the association The Solidarity Bet to protect us, him and me, she specifies. We could very well not get along, so I could appeal to the association to find another student. Above all, let’s imagine that I die. What becomes of it? Obviously, he can’t stay in the house because it will be sold. And if we hadn’t agreed, the association would have found another accommodation under the same conditions for Benjamin. So it’s protection.”
150 euros per month, charges included
The amount of the rent is up to Benjamin’s means, ie 150 euros per month, charges included. The contract is for one year, renewable as many times as necessary. Martine has fitted out a small studio in her attic. Comfort and, above all, stability that the student had never had: “Here you have a small kitchenette which is more for breakfast and Martine had the good idea of placing a shower right in the middle… Here, there are the toilets. Well, it’s not necessarily very big, but I got used to…” he said with a smile.
When moving in, Benjamin particularly appreciated having a desk to work at: “There was a lot of emotion when I arrived. I told myself that I was going to have a roof under which I would be well settled. At the beginning, I had a hard time accepting that it was my home and that I could set up the place. Everything was lying on the floor and I was working on the floor. I had forgotten this habit of working on a desk.” With his roommate Martine, with whom he has no family ties and 51 years apart, Benjamin has found more than a roof… a refuge.
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