There is the man who I pass everyday on the way to work, who wears a trilby and holds a beautiful russet puppy. There is the mother in Charles de Gaulle airport who navigates the terminal with 50 full plastic bags attached to a trolley.
There is the man who has played a musical box by Saint Lazare station for many years, in bad weather sheltering under a large umbrella attached to his cart. There is the woman with a collection of rabbits in hutches who wanders the bridges of the Seine and the family of four who sleep on a pile of mattresses at the end of my road.
The homeless population of Paris is estimated to number between 10,000 and 15,000 people and is varied, surprising and ever visible. They may be absent from postcards and films, but sleeping bags and scrawny dogs are in reality as synonymous with Parisian streets as soft afternoon light. Outside of the capital, recent estimates tell of as many as 3.5 million French people living in poor or unfit housing.
In 2007 Nicholas Sarkozy promised that he would eradicate homelessness if he were elected President of France. He promised that nobody would be forced to sleep and die on the streets in France by 2009. He said that fixed housing was a basic human right and that a person forced to sleep outdoors upsets the whole balance of a society. Unsurprisingly, he has utterly failed to achieve this ambitious social change. In 2011 over 370 people died on the streets of France; the latest statistics estimate 33,000 people daily sleeping rough and the national housing crisis affects 10 million people. It has proved to be a broken promise that has dogged him throughout his Presidency. The plight of those affected by the French housing crisis have just been given a surprise celebrity spokesman in the form of footballer turned actor turned French national treasure, Eric Cantona.
In a letter published in French daily paper Libération, Cantona has appealed to local mayors for 500 signatures, traditionally the number needed to run in the presidential elections.
The signatures are actually asked for in support of housing charity the Abbé Pierre Foundation's campaign to make France's housing crisis a priority in the upcoming election. Cantona writes that he wishes to see a "general mobilisation on the issue of housing" and to send a message of "solidarity" for the millions of families who suffer daily at its hands. If he does 'run' for presidency, Cantona's popularity could significantly unsettle the election battle, in a similar way to stand up comedian Coluche's short term campaign in 1980. What is certain is that both candidates will soon have to respond to the Abbé Pierre Foundation's claim that 500,000 lodgings must be built per year for the next 5 years in order to provide all French residents with adequate housing.
This is not the first time publicity stunts have been used to bring the French housing crisis to the public's attention. Organisation Les Enfants de Don Quichotte installed 100 red tents on the banks of the Seine in 2006 in a powerful visual to draw attention to the capital's homeless population. The protest received extensive media coverage and prompted presidential hopeful Sarkozy to make his audacious election promise. Similar protests and 'solidarity nights' in tents have followed in the years since, but the organisation have had little impact in encouraging the government to enforce laws already in place to help France's homeless population.
In my experience, the French are incredibly tolerant of their homeless neighbours. The number of non-profit organisations who devote themselves to the cause of France's housing crisis is testament to the real application of fraternité, from organising the distribution of meals and clothes to recording the passing of those who die on the streets. It remains to be seen, however, whether even the power of Monsieur Cantona is enough to convince France's top politicians that 3.5 million people living in insufficient housing is enough to justify some dramatic policy changes.