Contenu du sommaire : Sans-logis et squatters, auto-organisation et mobilisation collective

This article has a descriptive aim, based on a series of empirical observations and data collected from various sources, and it provides a simple characterization of the so called “social movement against exclusion”, and a description of the collective mobilisations which have taken place within this frameworh in particular on behalf and in the name of the homeless. In association with the well-known lead associations such as the “DAL” (“Right to housing”) and the “CDSL” (“Committee for the homeless”), a whole range of protest actions, with high visibility and full media cover, has developed in the last few years. The history of such mobilisations is here examined.

The squatters movement in Bordeaux constitutes an unusual experiment in its institutional component, as well as in the issues now raised between this latter and the public authorities. Within a self-managed squat whose leaders maintained close links with actors external to the political and/or associative movements, an association “Coordination SDF” (“Homeless coordination”) then emerged, which encouraged a project for the social treatment of the homeless problem. When the public authorities put forward concrete answers to their claims, by proposing to them the set-up – which they accepted – of two reception facilities for the homeless: “social residences”, they were then caught in a noose between a goup of squatters who refused such institutionalisation – and thus felt themselves excluded – and the external actors. Although this experiment is now ended, the structures entrusted to a recognised association, and the former fellow-members thanked for their services, it remains rich in lessons about the capacities and resources of certain squatters.

Without minimizing the real sufferings of the actors and the macro-social phenomena which generate current inequalities, it seems an opportune time now – in the face of the dominant opinions structured in turn by concern or compassion – to remember that individuals in very precarious situations also have both resources and competences. A study of squats in Marseilles, meaning those vacant but enclosed premises illegally occupied by the homeless, demonstrates the very great diversity in the histories of actual squatters, and in parallel in the types of squats which they set up. However, in addition, any work done on the squats provides a particularly relevant analysis of the know-how and received opinions at work in these areas, which are however marked by their very fragility, and even by violence and delinquency. In the light of the difficulties which squatters encounter when actually squatting, and the capacities they exploit to overcome them – and those aptitudes both practical and cognitive which can then be identified – one comes to understand that squatting can also be seen as an act of resistance, collective or individual, to the exclusion from housing. In consequence it now seems crucial for the community to take note of such aspirations and competences – and to think out with them some new forms for action.

This article has an analytical and theoretical airn, based on the sociological literature sources devoted to the social movements, and it provides an assessment and explanation of the participation by the homeless in both mobilisations and protests. The article analyses why certain homeless people become implicated in the collective actions undertaken and supported by particular charitable associations. It is based on the standard French and Anglo-American research done, along with the more recent studies – both general and more specific – devoted to questions about the homeless and those with no fixed abode.

Following an administrative enquiry on the initiative of the “Department for social action”, a working group (government officials, representatives from public companies, solidarity associations/bodies, and social workers) produced a report in 1999 which is to date the only document of an official character devoted to squats/squatters. This report attempts a first approach to the national significance of the phenomenon, and distinguishes between squats/squatters by their greater or lesser accessibility to any social action. The general orientation of the report defends a likely progressive disappearance of squats, thanks to the set-up of a social accompaniment for squatters, and lasting over time. In such a view the squat under certain conditions becomes a pathway towards insertion. The article details the various recommendations of the report for controlling public law and order, the reconciliation of ownership/property rights with a right to housing – and responses to the claims sometimes made by squatters in the matters of habitat, lodging and social action. Its author also endeavours to answer various criticisms made of the report since its publication.

The squat is basically a constrained form of “self-organisation” of the homeless. Hidden behind a poorly informed reality and representations more obstinate than justified, squats do also reveal how the limitations on the resources in place condition the enclosure of individuals, and even of social groups, in a survival mode which is both painful for them and the community. In fact, the justice system, the social sector and the executive all contribute (lacking adequate working tools and coherent guidance principles) to prolong individual case situations, which are shuffled around but not solved – while also depriving those mainly concerned of their individual initiative possibilities. For people to be able to take part in improving their situations, involves some transformation of their institutional environment – and more than the technical reforms, an extension of those logics guiding the work of the various actors concerned.

Making use of the real estate/property of old people via a sale with a life annuity can be seen as a tool for managing the risks of old age. These schemes however are subject to strong reserves in France because they halt any project for accumulating an estate, and then passing it on. This should not however prevent one from thinking about possible forms for a sales contract with life annuity, but stripped of those complications linked to the historical and legal conditions attached to their set-up – and this for at least four reasons. First, retirement replacement rates will probably drop in the future, and some recourse to personal saving will then undoubtedly be necessary: preserving ones estate and handing it on intact will perhaps in the future become a luxury, and often not available. Second, independent of the future for retirements, there are still today in France several “pockets of poverty” among the elderly population, which is paradoxical since these older people are very often property owners. Third, while examining but avoiding the emotional problems which it may raise, a life annuity schemes can actually solve the two major problems of many old people: resources and housing. Fourth, the US experience on the one hand, and an analysis of the blockages in France on the other hand, both demonstrate the interest in some form of intervention by the public authorities, and in some institutionalisation of life annuity schemes.

The CMU bill implements a universal means-tested supplementary health coverage, aimed at improving access to care for poor households in France. The scheme will therefore be evaluated on its capacity to enhance utilization and quantitative evaluations (and, quantitative evaluations will consist in comparing utilization (INTAKE) before and after the implementation of the program). A complementary and slightly different evaluation procedure is outlined in this paper, comparing CMU with three alternative schemes which were envisaged but not carried out eventually: an extension of coverage by the public sickness fund, aimed at removing any risk of cream-skimming from the insurers, a voucher dedicated to the purchase of health coverage, in order to enhance freedom of choice for the consumer, last ly, a managed care scheme centered on restricted panels of providers in competition.

With its accession to government in 1997, the members of the Labour Party started a vast reform of the system for retirement in the United Kingdom along the orientation lines of the conservative administrations. A disengagement by the State from the financing of pensions is confirmed, as well as the encouragement of individual responsibility. Even if the continued support of the British public finances in the long run is not affected, thanks to the demographic constraints (less critical than elsewhere) and to the parametric modifications made some twenty years ago, without reform of some kind the United Kingdom will in the year 2025 b, exposed to a risk of increased impoverishment among pensioners.Faced with the failure of the major conservative reforms launched in 199516, the project of Tony Blair must ensure that it can return purchasing power to an increasing population of future beneficiaries, who now face more and more varying career paths, and thus irregular and often modest incomes. In this respect the promotion of the “Stakeholder Pension” – a new individual plan for retirement from “New Labour” – presented as being flexible, protected and good value (due to the legal limitations on its management costs), will play a strategic role in the system as a whole. The Labour government is here seeking to adapt the retirement system, both in its public and private components, to the new economic and social factors now emerging with the generalised flexibility in the labour market across the channel. The article presents the issues impacting on “Stakeholder Pensions”, whose success can only b assured thanks to the success of the control reforms enacted at the same time, and thanks to the developing active consumerism across the channel.