海角大神

The wind whips up the edges of multicolored tents butted up against each other on a stretch of Paris鈥檚 Avenue de Flandre, home to several hundred refugees and migrants from Somalia, Eritrea, Sudan, and Afghanistan since the summer. Mustafa Mohamed Addouw, who occupies one of them, is confronting a challenge familiar to some 28,800 Parisians: not having a proper home.

鈥淎t home in Somalia it鈥檚 95 degrees, here it鈥檚 freezing, especially at night,鈥� says the young man, who has been living on the street for five days. Mr. Addouw has applied for asylum in France, but with his fingerprints already registered in Norway 鈥� possibly determining his ultimate destination 鈥� he doesn鈥檛 know what his future holds. 鈥淚f my request gets accepted, I鈥檒l stay here.鈥� If not, maybe I will live here like the homeless people. I don鈥檛 know. Life on the street is very hard.鈥�

Addouw joins a growing number of migrants who, as they wait for their asylum requests to go through, find themselves on the streets of the French capital, adding to an already serious homelessness problem in Paris.

The city is moving ahead with a variety of programs to address the issue 鈥� particularly the lack of housing that is at the root of the problem. But it is likely to experience additional strain amid plans to close the 10,000-strong migrant camp in nearby Calais 鈥� potentially adding thousands to the city's homeless population.

鈥淲e need a permanent solution because as it stands, there are very few centers that can handle the demands,鈥� says Antoine Pecoud, a sociology professor who teaches international migration at Sciences Po. 鈥淭he market is saturated and so people find themselves in the street.鈥�

The homelessness problem

Paris鈥檚 struggle with homelessness 鈥� like that of most major world capitals 鈥� is far from new. The city has been dealing with growing homelessness for decades, but it reached new heights when Europe鈥檚 financial crisis hit in 2008. What began as a phenomenon affecting those who were isolated or couldn鈥檛 find work has morphed into a more widespread problem, affecting single-parent families, single men, and young people.

While the numbers ebb and flow, local NGOs estimate that of the nearly 30,000 people without permanent homes, there are around 2,000 who live around the clock on the streets of Paris. The number of people without permanent housing in Paris increased by 84 percent from 2001 and 2012, according to national statistics bureau INSEE.

鈥淪alaries have not progressed at the same rate as rental prices, and more people are working on temporary or part-time contracts, which hasn鈥檛 helped the situation.鈥� says Eric Constantin, the regional director for Ile-de-France at the nongovernmental organization Fondation Abb茅 Pierre.

The city has since worked to make housing in Paris a priority. It has vowed to create 7,000 social housing units each year, including turning a former Renault garage and abandoned post office into apartments for families. By 2020, it hopes to transform 1,000 unused chambre de bonnes 鈥� former maid鈥檚 quarters that often act as miniature apartments 鈥� into viable living quarters.

And in a yearly contest that allows Parisians to send in their ideas for how the city should spend 5 percent of its budget, a project to provide more adequate housing won out over all others. So while many say there is still not enough housing to go around, the city is rising to the occasion.

鈥淭he state still isn鈥檛 putting enough money into dealing with the problem, but at least there is a desire to fix it here in Paris,鈥� says Christophe Louis, Director of Les Enfants du Canal, an NGO that works with diverse homeless populations around the French capital.

Overloaded system

Despite criticism last year within France鈥檚 homeless community that the city was putting more money and effort into tackling the migrant crisis than homelessness, Mr. Constantin says it鈥檚 dangerous to conflate the two issues.

鈥淧eople need to stop saying that the migrant problem is making things worse for homeless people,鈥� says Mr. Constantin. 鈥淭he lack of housing was definitely a problem before.鈥�

Nonetheless, the influx of migrants in France, and especially in Paris, has put pressure on an already strained emergency housing mechanism.

In France, asylum seekers can seek temporary housing for as long as it takes for their request to be processed at one of the many CADA center (centre d鈥檃ccueil pour demandeurs d鈥檃sile). If there鈥檚 no room at the CADAs, asylum seekers may end up in a CHU (centre d鈥檋茅bergement) 鈥� a place for anyone seeking emergency housing, migrant or otherwise.

鈥淔oreigners who end up in the street have the same rights as any other homeless person in France, in that they have the right to emergency housing,鈥� says Matthieu Tardis, a migration specialist at the Paris-based IFRI think tank.

But neither the CADA nor the CHU can handle the current number of demands. EU border agency Frontex says 1.8 million people entered Europe鈥檚 borders in 2015 鈥� of that number, there were more than 80,000 people who applied for asylum in France, and just over 19,000 who were accepted. The average processing time is 205 days, according to NGO France Terre d鈥橝sile. For those waiting to hear back about their applications, the idle time can be excruciating.

鈥淚 don鈥檛 know what鈥檚 going on,鈥� says Rachid, a young man from Sudan who has been living in a Paris CHU for a month while waiting to hear about his asylum request. 鈥淚 don鈥檛 know how long I can stay in the center. I have no information. I will just wait and see if I stay in France or move to another place.鈥�

'Our responsibility'

To try to take some of the pressure off Paris鈥檚 emergency housing centers, a long-awaited humanitarian camp is set to open in Paris at the end of October. The first of its kind in a European urban center, it will welcome 400 men, with a second center to accommodate 500 women and children set to open by the end of the year.

But while Mayor Anne Hidalgo has been heralded for the initiative, the camp will act as more of a processing center than housing structure; stays will range from just five to 10 days. And the potential shutdown of the Calais by the end of this year could put Paris at risk of even further saturation, with migrants in competition for housing with those already here.

It鈥檚 a moment when migration and homelessness will undoubtedly collide, and NGOs are preparing themselves for the influx.

鈥淢igrants have a very specific administrative status and are handled differently than the average homeless person in France,鈥� says Mr. Louis. 鈥淏ut if their asylum requests are rejected and they find themselves without anywhere to live, they become our responsibility. That鈥檚 when we step in.鈥�