Parisian tent city gives homeless helping hand

PARIS - The streets of Paris have just been given an unusual addition: grey and khaki igloo tents, which have sprouted up in quarters as diverse as the Left Bank, the Pompidou Centre and beneath the overground metro line that runs by Montmartre.

For anyone familiar with Paris's beautiful cityscape, the hump-backed polyester homes are a small shock, not least because they are emblazoned with the blue-and-white logo of Medecins du Monde (MDM, Doctors of the World) - a charity best known for helping the most wretched people in the poorest countries.

The tents are being distributed by MDM to hundreds of street people in a bid to raise their profile in a city as famous for its beauty as the self-importance and flint-heartedness of its citizens.

As a result, homeless people have suddenly become highly visible - and, fear some local residents, semi-permanent - on some of Paris most exquisite streets.

Sixty of the two-person tents were handed out on December 21, another 200 followed suit in January in the midst of a Siberian chill, and another 100 are on order.

"It's first and foremost a means of protecting people who could die," says MDM's Graziella Robert. "Living in the street destroys your health ... Ten people have already died of cold this winter. We can't carry on like this."

The tents also serve a social message, says Robert.

"They are beacons of distress, sending out the message that we can no longer ignore the plight of the homeless, showing us that they are visible and among us."

MDM and other agencies working with people who are homeless in Paris - the true number is unknown, but it may well run into 5000 or 6000 - say that the biggest problem with the temporary shelters run by city hall is that people are turfed out early in the morning and can only return there late at night.

As a result, the homeless become even more rootless, drinking cheap wine or huddling in the warm draft that blows from subway gratings in order to keep warm.

They are forced to take all their belongings with them, which means they become vulnerable to theft and find it even harder to search for work or housing.

The initial response to the tents has been almost universally positive. In the face of a media glare, but also no doubt feeling sympathy for the destitute in the depths of winter, officials have done nothing to dislodge the igloo folks.

"You would have to have a heart of stone not to be moved by the tents," said Jean-Pierre Lecoq, a member of President Jacques Chirac's conservative UMP Party, who is mayor of the 6th arrondissement (district) in the Latin Quarter.

"It is a message to town halls everywhere, because a tent is a symbol of something that is both lasting and temporary on the same time."

"You don't expect to see tents in the heart of the capital, they are bit like UFOs. You first start wondering what they are and then you suddenly understand," said Pierre Castagnou, Mayor of the 14th district.

The tents "may change mentalities. It makes it impossible for people to bury their heads in the sand and pretend that homelessness does not exist," he suggested.

But some quietly say that MDM is badly simplifying the complexities of homelessness - and also ignoring fundamental problems such as hygiene and safety on the street.

The Minister for Social Cohesion, Catherine Vautrin, said 22 per cent of homeless people who were questioned in a recent opinion poll said they preferred to sleep in the street at night rather than go to a shelter.

She added there were also many day shelters where people could go and also get medical help.

"If people refuse to go into shelters, that's their choice, but at the same time you mustn't perpetuate their existence in the street by handing out tents," said Vautrin.

Among homeless people, the tents have been gratefully received and quickly adapted, sometimes formed into encampments of several or more igloos to discourage thieves.