Emergency accommodation: in Paris, a hotel provides 42 rooms for the homeless

Finding emergency accommodation solutions has been a major issue in Ile-de-France for several months.

So when the Emmaüs solidaire association - which follows 5,000 people in the region daily and manages around fifty structures - was contacted by the owner of the Avenir Montmartre hotel in Paris (IXth district), it was impossible to refuse this opportunity.

"He offered to make his establishment available for a period of one year," explains Bruno Morel, general manager, who this Wednesday afternoon is welcoming us to this establishment, which since November 6 has been transformed into an emergency accommodation center. (CHU).

In 48 hours, everything was ready, he congratulates, aware of the pressure of requests.

It is necessary to find places if possible over a long period of time that do not require too much work.

The whole point is that here everything was already equipped, and each room has its individual sanitary facilities.

Sixty people are already accommodated, there will be 85 of them, distributed in 42 rooms, by the end of the week, specifies Bruno Morel.

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The breakfast room with burgundy red benches has been transformed into a refectory and the reception room into a reception point where a plexiglass plate rises, Covid obliges.

Almost everywhere, on the walls, the drink machines, various posters remind us of the right barrier gestures to have.

“Everything has been thought out in compliance with the health protocol, insists Bruno Morel while acting as a guide in this hotel.

We are on a male audience, in their forties, some have experienced major social and family ruptures or have traumatic journeys of exile, sometimes weakened health, hence the regular presence of a nurse.

Some work in security, building or were waiters… These are people who have a desire to find solutions.

"

"I don't understand how you can let a 68 year old man out…"

Among them, Lucas and Ali * (the first names have been changed), installed in rooms on the second and first floor and who dream of better days.

Black pants, white shirt, slicked back hair, Lucas, retiree has been here "for eight or ten days".

He hopes "to resume a normal life" soon: "I had a pension of 800 euros and then I found myself in 2016 with 200 euros because of an administrative problem".

He then found himself in the street at the Charles-de-Gaulle-Etoile metro in Paris (8th arrondissement).

“It was horrible,” he testifies.

He remembers his hard times, modestly explains, “the loss of morale” and then the help of Emmaüs Solidarity.

"I don't understand how you can let a 68 year old man out ..." he whispers.

The hotel rooms, with a view of the Sacré-Coeur, offer a little respite to people with often complex journeys.

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Ali, 45, remembers his “two years outside without being able to wash properly” before entering an accommodation center in the 18th century, then joining that of the Avenir hotel a week ago.

"I feel helped, we are accompanied to call the doctor, to do our papers," he insists.

It feels good, ”he says while authorizing a visit to his room shared with an English speaker, who sits on the red blanket of a single bed, attentively watching a western on TV.

In this emergency accommodation center (CHU), a team of ten people is present continuously and offers "social support", insists Bruno Morel.

This is not the only place that had to be transformed into a CHU.

"This year is special, between the health crisis and the winter period"

A few days after the opening of the Hôtel de l'Avenir, Emmaüs solidaire actually invested in a youth hostel in the 20th arrondissement of Paris.

Here again, it was necessary to rethink the places which today can accommodate “120 places”.

A third operation enabled the creation of “17 places in a pavilion for homeless people followed by the Bois de Vincennes marauding.

We still have a dozen projects in this genre.

This year is special, between the health crisis and the winter period, repeats Bruno Morel.

All associations are mobilized to find solutions, the issue is the building, there is an urgent need to find places very quickly.

"

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At the Avenir hotel, Ali and Lucas have their minds turned towards their future.

"There is a person who was accommodated in a center and who found a studio", insists Ali, proof that it is possible "for [him] too", he hopes.