An estimated 8,000 people are living in substandard 'cheap' hotels in Paris, reported The Daily Star. Their plight was internationally recognised in April when a fire broke out in a hotel, killing 24 people; half of the victims were children. Some parents tried to save their children by dropping them out of widows.
Fatima is perhaps representative of the growing number of low-income earners, many of them immigrants, who find themselves unable to provide decent homes for their families. Fatima, who is pregnant, and her family have shared a tiny Paris hotel room for the past year. Now they face eviction.
Thousands of house hunters are unsuccessful in their bid to access affordable accommodation in Paris every year, and instead live with friends, or in squats, or other unfit accommodation. The Paris city authorities cite the rising price of accommodation in the private sector, as the main problem. Critics of the authorities say not enough is being done to improve access to affordable housing.
The French Government in under pressure, with society's most economically disadvantaged looking for signs of a better future. The authorities are known to have purchased and converted some 30 hotels for social housing, but still there is a heavy reliance on unfit hotels.
Read more about this issue at www.thedailystar.net.
Paris's poor struggle to
find decent homes
Reuters, Paris, 23 July 2005
The Housing Monthly Diary reported in May, President Ricardo Lagos' new social policy to free some 30% of those owing money to the Urban and Housing Service (SERVIU) of their debts. But all is not what it seems, reported The Santiago Times.
Underlying four women's demonstration to be included in the President's Dynamic Debtless Social Housing programme (DDSH) is the ubiquitous housing shortage and poor living conditions of Chile's disadvantaged masses, and a widely held belief that the DDSH is not as inclusive as it should or claims to be.
Some of the disenchanted debtors formed a new group, the National Association of Housing Debtors (ANDHA), to lobby for the debtors overlooked or otherwise excluded by the DDSH. The ANDHA has so far mobilised the affected parties for organised marches and a 13-day hunger strike, which involved 11 debtors. The ANDHA's research concludes that only around 110,000 debtors will benefit from the DDSH, compared to the 225,000 it claims to benefit.
Lead news stories are free to access at The Santiago Times: www.tcgnews.com/santiagotimes.
Social Housing in Chile
Unsatisfactory
The Santiago Times, 29 July 2005
In Johannesburg, police were on high alert as squatters protested their impending eviction from some 16 abandoned factories. The police used a stun grenade and rubber bullets to disperse a 900-strong crowd, who set up burning blockades and threw stones, reported News24.Com. Many of the protesters were wearing anti-privatisation t-shirts.
The Johannesburg High Court granted the notices of eviction in January, but squatters wanted to inspect permanent accommodation before substituting the factories for temporary accommodation, which they feared would become permanent.
The land the factories occupy is earmarked for development. Some squatters claimed to have lived in the factories for over 15-years.
Access articles from News24.Com at www.news24.com.
Johannesburg Police Clash with Squatters
News24.Com, 3 August 2005