200 young homeless occupy Paris theatre
NewsThe cultural venue La Gaité Lyrique has been paralysed for a week by a homeless sit-in.
The theatre has issued this statement:
200 people from all walks of life and without housing solutions, grouped as the “collective of young people of the Parc de Belleville”, have occupied the spaces of the Gaîté Lyrique, a cultural venue of the City of Paris. The Gaîté Lyrique regrets the sudden and forced nature of this occupation, but recalls the legitimate nature of the collective’s demand to obtain a roof for these 200 people…
In the absence of any concrete rehousing proposal from the State and the City of Paris, it is unthinkable, at the risk of putting them in danger, to throw these people out onto the streets in December, when temperatures are around 0°.
Should we wait until the situation deteriorates further, or until there are victims, for this inaction by the competent and responsible authorities to cease?
Under these conditions, and unable to guarantee the smooth running of the event, the Gaîté Lyrique has decided to regretfully cancel the Marathon festival scheduled for this evening. The Gaîté Solidarity Christmas scheduled for today is also canceled. The teams are working hard to keep the venue open and maintain other activities.
Throw, I mean force, them out and away. No proper cultural venue should be degraded either by leftist entitlement or by homeless stink. Hard to say which is worse. Just throw them all out with police. Sick of this.
They’ll probably need to do a major decontamination and repairs when those people leave the place.
The new lobby at David Geffen Hall has a similar vibe. But I don’t blame the unhoused for seeking shelter and warmth. If the city can’t handle the issue, perhaps arts organizations have a role to play.
Occupy is becoming synonymous with Trespassing.
I seem to recall from a film years ago that in France homeless people have a legal right to occupy a dwelling space that is vacant. (Of course a theatre is not a dwelling space, and this theatre was not ‘vacant’.)
You just need to set a foot in France to get all kind of rights. France has become everyone ‘s right….Maybe the reason why the ship is sinking… Olympics and Notre Dame reopening just part of strategy of denial and Potemkin country.
France imports in great numbers, under educated people from completely different cultures and exports high diploma people…Rats, ie natives, leave the boat as soon as they get the chance ….
I don’t see one comment above where the person has used his or her real name. Rather like a gaggle of geese strutting around and leaving their usual droppings (comments).