"Thank you for the guest": when Parisians share their roof with homeless women

Clarisse left on Saturday and her absence leaves a void in Celestine's small apartment.

Failing to push the walls, this young Parisian photographer of 26 years had pushed the furniture of her studio in the 18th arrondissement a little.

And unfolded the sofa bed to accommodate Clarisse, a homeless Ivorian.

With her eyes closed, she had given him a bunch of keys, shared the bathroom, the kitchen, a bit of her life ...

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Without it, Clarisse would probably have slept in the street, hiding to escape the dangers.

Because being a woman and homeless, in Paris, is a bit of a double penalty: the threats of cold, discomfort, lack of hygiene, are added those of increased vulnerability.

Assault, theft, rape… How can you protect yourself from them when most emergency shelters are reserved for men?

Shortage of accommodation places

The lack of accommodation places leaves many women on the streets, despite the recent openings of structures such as the Cité Des Dames (13th century), which welcomed 800 last year.

Solinum is tackling this flaw, an association launched four years ago to help the most vulnerable, with innovative digital means.

Mixing people and new technologies, for example, made it possible in 2016 to achieve “Soliguide”.

A free digital platform translated into several languages, which lists in nine departments everything that exists in terms of services, addresses and useful information for the homeless, "90% of whom now have a mobile phone", underline the managers of Solinum.

A network open to volunteer citizens

With the “Thank you for the guest” service, the association makes solidarity as simple as the click of a mouse, while giving it a rigorous framework.

The principle: allow homeless women to spend a few months with “accommodation providers”, volunteer citizens ready to offer a room or sometimes, like Celestine, a small place in their living room, out of pure solidarity.

Between hosts and lodged, there is no money or small jobs in return, it is altruism and trust that make this citizen network develop.

In a few months, it has already made it possible to shelter 36 women, in parallel with social support.

"Social follow-up is very important," insists Manon, one of the speakers at

, "that's also why we are on long-term accommodation rather than on emergency, in order to be able to carry out this social action ”.

For some, like Marilina

, “the guest” has led to accommodation.

"A roof to regain self-confidence"

"Nothing is more important to rebuild and regain self-confidence than a roof in a safe environment," explains Victoria Mandefield, founder of Solinum.

“Housing is the first step in a new life”.

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Thank you for the invitation allows people "like you and me" to offer this step to women in danger, according to a very specific mechanism: "candidate hosts" who register on the platform are contacted and visited.

“We have to make sure of their motivations, of the possibility of housing someone, of explaining the system well,” explains Manon.

Then, we cross with the needs of women addressed to us by social workers ”.

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A first meeting is organized "at home" with the woman to be accommodated, then an agreement is signed between the host, the lodged, the social worker who follows her, and Solinum.

Then, "we follow up on the accommodation component, through weekly contact and then more widely when there is no need," explains the young woman.

"To be able to sacrifice a little of your space

"

Beyond her natural altruism, it is this framework that led Célestine to register on "Merci pour l'Avit", discovered through the association "Abri de femmes", whose actions she follows.

"I find this support reassuring, it is not improvised, not impulsive," explains the young woman.

It's not necessarily easy to tell yourself that you are going to open your door to a stranger.

, a pledge of confidence.

We also know that we welcome someone who is in a process of reintegration, of construction… ”

As a woman, Célestine is also very aware "that women in the street are in danger, that they can be attacked physically, sexually, it obviously affects me too", she insists.

Paris 12th arrondissement, Friday near noon.

Marilina, 60, was able to spend more than a year in safety.

LP / Elodie Soulié  

And too bad if she only had her 30 square meters with small balcony to offer, Solinum was seduced by the young woman's sincerity.

“In Paris, most people lack space, you have to be able to sacrifice a little of your living space,” smiles Célestine.

“The idea was to give it stability, and the cohabitation between us went very well right away.

Me, it cost me nothing and I received a lot, humanly.

I only saved someone from sleeping outside, people need to know that it is so easy, and that they have nothing to fear!

»Repeats the young woman.

Before moving to her home for a few weeks, Clarisse had spent nine months at the Cité des Dames.

This week, again thanks to the Solinum device, she moved in with another Parisian family, closer to her work.

"It was like in a 5 star hotel!"

For Marilina, who has just moved into "her" home, Merci pour l'Avit was the lucky break, at almost 60 years old, of a bumpy journey between her country, Brazil, where she had suffered. a rape, and the Parisian pavement.

“I came twenty years ago thinking I could work here,” she says.

In Brazil, I did art restoration, tapestry, I dreamed of France since childhood… ”

But she is disillusioned: in France, her only talent is not worth a diploma.

"Everywhere, I was refused, and the problem of the papers closes the doors," she smiles sadly.

Goodbye art, Marilina becomes a nanny, housekeeper, multitasking but still not "settled".

Then she gets married, believing to find love before running away: her husband wanted to prostitute her.

In Brazil, her two children grow up unaware that their mother is suffering the pangs of the streets.

“I wanted them to believe that I was successful, to be proud of me,” she almost apologizes.

Fragile but combative, she stayed there for more than a year, sleeping in train wagons, RERs, night buses ...

Finally taken in charge at the Halte femmes, accepted in a catering training in the 14th arrondissement, Marilina sees a more peaceful horizon opening up.

Thanks to

, she moved to a Parisian family for seven months in the 19th century.

“I slept in the living room but I was sheltered.

It was light at the end of the tunnel, ”she says gratefully.

At the end of these seven months, Marilina moved in with another family from the

network

, in the 13th district, closer to her work.

Her eyes shine when she talks about this couple and the 2 children who have opened their home to her so simply for almost 2 months.

“It was like a 5 star hotel!

Heaven ".

Today Marilina touches the keys to her little 14 square meters “small but mine”, but will never say enough “Thank you for the guest”, this human chain that saved her.

“Having a home and a family that welcomes you like that when they don't know you, it's huge,” she repeats.