Family Hotels, Solidarity Habitat Space : solidarity at work

Since 2001, the Foundation has been bringing methodological and financial support to around fifteen NGOs committed to the “Family Hotels” project. A Family Hotel is a living space of about twenty spots, with a warm family atmosphere and managed by a couple of employees. These living places combine individual housing with collective spaces. Each contributes to the collective life according to his possibilities: the guests can enjoy an autonomous living mode or benefit from the common installations (kitchen and dining room for instance). This type of accommodation is aimed at persons in a situation of lasting exclusion. It brings concrete help to weakened persons, without family ties, who couldn’t bear to live alone, who would either not eat or eat very little, and who wouldn’t follow the adequate treatment in the case of diagnosed medical conditions.

The Foundation directly manages two of these Family Hotels, in Metz and Marseille. The first one, inaugurated in 2003, is an amazing building, the former residence of a local construction entrepreneur, in Woippy, close to Metz. It houses twelve persons in studios. The Marseille Hotel opened its doors in the spring of 2004, in a five-storey building downtown. The Foundation renovated 17 units (from studio flats to 3-bedroom apartments). Since then, and with the continuous help of the Foundation, other Hotels were established in Grasse, Besançon, Toulouse, Beauvais, Cavaillon, Montpellier…

No habitat without solidarity

To breathe life into the law against exclusion, the Foundation creates the Espace Solidarité Habitat (Solidarity Habitat Space).

A gathering of partners specialised in actions concerning bad-housing like the CGL (Confédération générale du logement or the General Confederation for Housing), the Espace Solidarité Habitat (ESH, Solidarity Habitat Space) is established by the Foundation. It offers social accompaniment allowing hosted persons to get involved in the managing of a budget, and the improvement of housing. Several issues are tackled: problems linked to over-crowding; insalubrities (fight against lead poisoning in collaboration with the AFVS); over-indebtedness (with SOS Famille, an NGO dedicated to bringing financial and educational aid, created by Emmaüs in 1967); eviction threats. The ESH provides information concerning the rights and the existing aids and guides the persons in the process. When all else fails, the ESH can initiate a mediation with the private owner or the public authorities.