About 80 people on the street, mainly migrants, were given places in emergency centers and hotels following an action on Saturday by the "collective requisition." These activists, along with homeless people, occupied empty wings of the Hôtel-Dieu hospital in Paris, demanding accommodation.
The operation was a relative success. On February 13, as a cold spell hit the French capital, organizations working together staged a "collective requisition" aimed at raising visibility of people on the street by occupying the Hôtel-Dieu hospital in Paris, which has several empty wings.
Some 200 people, the vast majority of whom were activists, took part in the operation, called "Get warm," in the iconic Parisian establishment before being cleared from the premises by the police. The aim was to obtain accommodation for all those living on the streets.
80 people found accommodation
It paid off, think the organizations. That evening, 80 homeless people were placed in emergency shelters or hotels, mainly in the 19th and 18th arrondissements of Paris. Most of them were migrants, including young people waiting to be recognized as minors, or in the process of applying for asylum. The men were sent to the Paris Event Center, an exhibition hall at La Villette that has been transformed into emergency accommodation, and the families and women were put up in an Ibis hotel.
The families, in particular, had, until recently, been used to spending the night "in other people's homes or in cars," said Jean-Baptiste Eyraud, spokesman for DAL (Right to Housing), which, along with Utopia 56, was one of the organizations that founded the "collective requisition." action. "It's encouraging, that's how we manage to create a movement of solidarity," Eyraud said.
'It's tragic to have to reach this point'
The operation was initiated in response to the implementation of the " Deep Freeze " plan in the Ile-de-France region last week, a measure deemed insufficient by many organizations who work with migrants and the homeless. According to non-profit organizations, despite the opening of emergency accommodation sites, hundreds of people are still on the streets.
"There have been solutions proposed [as a result of the action], and that's a good thing. Now we'll see if they're long term. But it's tragic to have to reach this point in order to find housing," said Yann Manzi from Utopia 56, adding "we no longer want a camp for migrants ... but housing."
To push authorities to take action concerning people on the street, the collective has in recent weeks filed requisition requests with the prefecture for 450 unoccupied places in the capital.
On January 24, the group occupied a former nursery school in the 16th arrondissement of Paris to request accommodation for about 300 migrants. They were given temporary shelter in Parisian gymnasiums and then referred to shelters.