“Home is a notion that only nations of the homeless fully appreciate and only the uprooted comprehend.”
― Wallace Stegner, Angle of Repose
By Tiffany Teng
In the spring of 2012, I studied abroad for 4 months in the elegant, romantic city of Paris.
Paris has long been touted as a conflation of the elite and the beggars, ever since the French Revolution sparked a rebellious, Bohemian culture in Paris.
Every morning, as I walked to and from my host mom’s apartment, I passed dozens of rough sleepers. “Rough sleepers” are homeless people who sleep in the streets or metro stations because they have nowhere else to go.
Outside of Mercer County, homelessness prevails internationally.
Researchers and policymakers created International Alliance to End Homelessness in March 2011 (http://www.endhomelessness.org/pages/iaeh). In just two years, they have measured the best practices in policies revolving targeting, creating homeless systems, migration, accessing mainstream assistance and outcomes.
In recent years, the French government has begun to resolve this devastating issue. It has been one of the government’s main priorities since 2007, met with much political debate and bureaucratic red tape. However, in a city where homelessness has become a stitch in the culture, the legal actions to remove rough sleepers and create more accessible homeless shelters have not led to dramatic results.
Meanwhile, the disparity between the rich and the poor is devastating—homeless men beg for scraps right beside the most luxurious shops selling imported Spanish ham and diamond-encrusted handbags. Entire families panhandle and gypsies are ready to pickpocket the nearest tourist.
On any given night, there are between 2,000 and 15,000 homeless in Paris, according to The Economist. In October 2012, this number was approximately 12,000, with the youngest population of rough sleepers the city had ever seen.
There was a young man with a large dog that I passed every day on my way to the Bastille metro station. He lived in a nook in the wall that used to be a fountain and was now a protective cave shielding him and his dog from the harsh winter winds. Each day, I would smile, give a little wave, and he would respond with “Salut!” If he were not there, I would wonder where he was and felt as though something was missing. I worried for him, and wished there was something more I could do. After all, since the first day I met him and asked to take his photograph, we had become friends—in the way that only two complete strangers can become friends from sharing one serendipitous moment.
One year later, I wonder where he is and how he is coping. I hope he found a permanent home so he can move on with his life and do all the wonderful things young people have the potential to do.
Living on the streets on a few dollars a day without food or shelter, let alone good hygiene and health, takes a toll on physiological and safety needs, and develops psychological problems within an individual.
Unfortunately, the unemployment rate reached a 13-year high in 2012 at 10.2% and rising, according to Reuters. The French public blames bureaucracy and centralization, but the reality is that homelessness can be eliminated through a series of measured steps and thorough policy-making.
Until then, rough sleepers will continue to call Parisian streets “home.”
Even the wealthiest cities in the world suffer from homelessness—underneath the glamour and romance, Paris reveals a bitter truth and offers its streets as a default home for thousands every night.