As a result of the lack of social housings in Paris, an increasing number of homeless families are placed in cheap tourist hotels by the social services. For tax payers, the cost of a hotel room is up to four times higher than a social flat. These situation has created a new market for hotel owners who make money of other people's misery. The reasons of the social evils are the exorbitant rents of Paris and its suburbs, the state's inability to build adequate social housings and the allocation of social housings to persons with a close relation to the municipalities. The living conditions in the buildings are indescribable : defect heatings, extreme narrowness, cockroaches and mice. Their inhabitants of the hotels without stars live in fear of fire and of hotel tenants who don't respect their privacy.
© / Children playing on the hotel floor.
There are no place to play. Hotel Formule 1
© / Hotel Oberkampf. Malika Karmel is living with her 4 children in two rooms ( each17 square meter). She is paying 2400 Euro per month.
© / Malika at the Hotel Oberkampf. They use the second room as sleeping room and kitchen.
© / Noelle, 42, has been living for 3 years in the hotel.Noelles daughters Sheylan and Shanel.
© / Noelle`s daugthers.
© / Noelle's daugther Sheylan.
© / Each morning Noelle is washing her 4 children. The bath room is cold and wet. The children trimble. The shower has mostly cold water, cause the hotel has only one hot water tank for 30 hotel rooms.
© / To prepare the brakfast for the children, Noelle has to put away her mattress. Her children are sleeping on wet sofa-beds.
© / Jay, 40, applied for a social housing in 1999. Since then, she's been renewing her application each year. She lives in the hotel with her two children, Florent, 8, and Flora 3. The room (9 square meter) costs 1450 Euro per month. Jay is combing Flora for the kindergarden.
© / Jay,40. All their belongings are stapled at a corner of the room.
© / Jay, 40.
© / Fatima, 45, is a mother of nine children and since her husband has left her, she is living in the hotel. She rents 4 rooms in the Hotel Fleury. The social services of Paris pay 4350 Euro the month. Since she is working as a janitor she is paying for the rent 750 Euros. Fatimas's children.
© / Fatima 45, with her children and a friend.
© / Fatima's children
© / Hotel Oberkampf. Malika is paying 2400 Euro for two rooms. They use the second room for a pantry and kitchen. Her daughter Marouan is hyperactive. The children has no toys or place to play.
© / Malika is eating with her children.
© / The children of Malika
© / Sleeping children of Fatima, Aise and Ibrahim.
© / Fatimas son Maka, 16, learning cook in the technical school. He hopes for a job and an own flat.
© / Noelle helps her son at his schoolwork. Most of the children of the hotel have learning difficulties.
© / Noelle, 42, has been living for 3 years in the hotel. She struggle to get a social housing. Her first application was submitted 1985. As a call-center agent she earns 1000 EURO per month. The Hotel room (10 square meter) coast 2000 EURO. Noell pays365 EUROS, social services provide for the rest of the bill. Despite the social worker says she lives in unbearable conditions nothing happened. She hopes for a better live. For herself, but above all for her four children.