Converted garages, cellars and chambres de bonne are among the spaces rented out illegally in Paris, the second most expensive city in the world, reports The Guardian.
Sophia moved to Paris two years ago from her native Rio de Janeiro. She lives in a converted storage room on the sixth floor of her landlord's building, close to the Champs Elysées. The room, which has a sink, measures less than 5 square metres and costs Sophia €350 (£290) per month, or €70 per square metre.
There used to be a kitchen in the corridor, until her landlords ripped it out after trying to force her to leave. "One night I came home to find they had used a lock I don't have the key for. I had to call a locksmith to open my home, which cost €400. So I didn't have enough to pay my rent the next month."
Sophia is unable to find alternative lodgings due to her modest revenue. "If I could leave, I would – trust me, I have looked. When I first arrived, I thought these small, expensive spaces were the norm in Paris. It's only when I brought a friend here one day and he explained it is illegal to rent out this sized room that I realised I was being abused."
The housing crisis in Paris dates back more than a century to the golden years of the Belle époque – when the city could not grow fast enough to satisfy a population finally freed from the cares of war and revolution. But according to the Economist Intelligence Unit's latest cost-of-living report, Paris is now the second most expensive city in the world after Singapore.
The price of rented accommodation is so inaccessible that many workers on modest pay are having to take up illegal and substandard rooms rented out by modern-day marchands de sommeil, or "sleep vendors" (the term originally described those who rented beds by the hour to 1950s workers in shantytowns on the outskirts of Paris).
Last year, housing action group La Fondation Abbé Pierre (FAP) uncovered the case of Dominique – a now 50-years-old temporary worker who had spent the past 15 years living in a tiny former chambre de bonne (maid's attic room) that measured just 1.56m x 1.56m. One of many such rooms being rented out illegally, Dominique paid a monthly rate of €330 (£271). He had no access to a shower or toilet, just a sink in his room. “We didn't live, we survived”, he told French radio station RTL. “But we ended up saying it's either that or living out on the streets.”
Prior to Dominique renting the room, it had been on the books of three different estate agencies. He has taken legal action to claim back the 15 years' rent from his landlady. “Dominique should be compensated for the abuse he has suffered ; the rent should be reimbursed in full because his vulnerability was abused – but also it is necessary to make an example of the landlady”, said FAP's chief executive officer, Patrick Doutreligne. “Even prison cells aren't as bad as some of these lodgings.” The final verdict is due on 24 March.
Under French law, to be deemed fit for habitation, a living space needs to be a minimum of 9 square metres and 1.80m in height, and possess adequate heating, running water, electricity and access to a bathroom, shower and kitchen. Many landlords, however, are still renting out converted cupboards, garages, cellars or chambres de bonne. The FAP estimates one-fifth of all housing issues it deals with concern illegally small accommodation, and that more than 3.5 million people across the country are living in unacceptable accommodation.
Doutreligne describes it as "a serious abuse of the poor in renting out these sorts of places on a permanent basis. These illegal lodgings must be reported and landlords sanctioned if we want to protect human dignity".
In France there are a great many obstacles to renting a place. The tenant must earn three to four times the rent ; they must provide pay slips, references, work contracts, identity papers, bank account details and tax declarations; and all are required to have a guarantor. But above all, excessive demand plus various gentrification projects are causing property prices to sky-rocket (buying an apartment in Paris now costs an average of €8,000 (£6,600) per square metre).
“If a place costs more than €30 per square metre to rent per month, it's too much”, said Jean-Baptiste Eyraud, founder of housing rights association Droit au Logement (DAL). Penalities in the form of taxes and fines are in place for landlords who rent rooms illegally, but they are easily evaded according to Eyraud.
Read more of this report from The Guardian.
See also:
Divide and multiply: the new slums mushrooming in the Paris suburbs
A town hall bringing the fight against slumlords
Poor and powerless: the Paris suburb where slumlords rule the roost