Mercy in the wintertime

Here’s an absolutely extraordinary snippet from my son’s daily newspaper, Mon Quotidien. I’ve included it below, in French and then in English. My comments follow at the end.

Une mère et son bébé expulsés d’un logement

La Fondation Abbe-Pierre l’a révélé vendredi. Une mère et son enfant de 1 an viennent d’être expulsés d’un « logement » minuscule de 4 m² a Paris. C’est l’équivalent d’une pièce carrée de 2 m sur 2 m. Motif : la mère ne pouvait plus payer le loyer de 200 € par mois. Le propriétaire l’a prévenue par SMS. Puis il a change les serrures de la porte et a déposé leurs affaires dehors. La femme et le bébé ont été accueillis par un membre de leur famille. Le propriétaire sera puni, a indique le gouvernement. Il est interdit d’expulser des gens de novembre a mars, même s’ils ne payent pas leur loyer. C’est la trêve hivernale. Le but est d’éviter qu’ils dorment dehors en hiver. De plus, la loi interdit de louer moins de 9 m² (pièce de 3 m sur 3 m).

A mother and her baby evicted from housing

The Foundation Abbé-Pierre revealed on Friday that a mother and her one year old baby have been evicted from a miniscule ‘apartment’, 4 m² in Paris. This is equivalent to a square of 2 m by 2 m. The reason: the mother could not pay the rent of € 200 per month, and was notified by SMS. The proprietor then changed the locks on the door and left their belongings on the street. The woman and the baby were helped by a member of their family.
The owner will be punished, says the French government. It is forbidden to expel people between November and March, even if they do not pay their rent. This is called ‘the winter break’ (la trêve hivernale). The goal is to prevent people from having to sleep outside in winter. In addition, the law prohibits an apartment of less than 9 m² (3 m piece of 3 m) to be made available for rent.

Mon Quotidien, jeudi 24 janvier 2013

So, why do I think that that is extraordinary? It struck me because of the humanity of the government policy to give struggling people a break from their struggles during the really cold winter months in France. It’s cold in Toulouse, but it’s damn cold in Paris, and I can’t imagine what sleeping outdoors must be like when I’m cold, despite being wrapped up in my new down winter jacket, gloves, scarf, woolly socks and hat. Paris has more snow that Toulouse too.

It also struck me because of the nastiness of the proprietor of the property; chucking this mum and baby’s belongings onto the street, and notifying her BY TEXT that she was out of her apartment, I mean, out of her cupboard. I’m not very good at visualising space, so I asked my clever right-sided brain husband to show me what it looks like. It’s small. Really small.

A friend of ours, Kate, spent her student years in Dunedin (almost as far down the South Island of New Zealand that you can go). She described getting ready for bed in the wintertime in the big, old, uninsulated, wooden house that she rented with some other girls. Thermals underneath flannelette pyjamas, woollen jumper(s), woolly hat, and gloves, with a couple of hot water bottles, and that was before getting into bed. Then a last trip to the loo because it was impossible to get out of bed in the freezing temperatures at night. Kate said she tried not to move position during the night because her pillow would freeze and would be too cold to put her face on if she moved just a bit. And it took all her willpower to get up in the morning, just to see the lovely patterns of ice on the inside of her bedroom windows. But then, that’s old New Zealand housing for you (getting better nowadays thank goodness).

So, from my point of view it’s 10/10 points for the French government for a humane and meaningful and life-saving policy.