COMBATING SOCIAL EXCLUSION THROUGH PUBLIC- PRIVATE PARTNERSHIPS MOBILE: ASSISTANCE TEAMS AND DAYSHELTERS FOR THE HOMELESS
A CASE FROM THE NORTH: PARIS, FRANCE
The City of Paris, a member of the World Alliance
of Cities Against Poverty, took the initiative in 1993 of organising
an emergency medical and welfare service for the homeless, the Samu
Social de Paris (SSP). Building on this action, the municipality opened
day shelters for the homeless in 1996. To realise these projects,
the Municipality of Paris appealed to both public and private partners.
These partnerships have enabled the municipality to limit its costs
and gradually reduce its share of the total investment. Similar partnerships
could be formed for other types of project.
I. The Samu Social de Paris
a. A municipal initiative
In November 1993, the Municipality of Paris set up an emergency
service for the homeless called the Samu Social de Paris (SSP)—Paris
Emergency Welfare Service—which provides mobile assistance teams
to go and meet people in distress on the streets and responds to telephone
calls about the homeless. The SSP can refer homeless people to medical
or nursing care, overnight crisis accommodation or a day shelter.
It can organise transport to these places and registration.
b.A public/private partnership
To realise this project, the Municipality of Paris joined forces with
private and public partners. The partnership is a legally and financially
independent association. A board of directors, composed of representatives
of all the partners, decides on the actions of the SSP, which are
implemented by management.
The partners provide staff, office space, equipment, contributions
to the annual budget and other forms of support.
The SSP initially comprised the following organisations:
- Various levels of government: the Municipality of Paris, the Department
of Paris and the national government
- Public welfare institutions: the Centre d’Action Sociale,
a welfare organisation within the Municipality of Paris; the Assistance
Publique, the organisation that manages hospitals in the greater Paris
area; an emergency medical and accommodation centre in the Paris suburb
of Nanterre; the Ile-de-France regional branch of the Fédération
Nationale des Associations de Réinsertion Sociale, the national
federation of reinsertion associations; and the Caisse des Dépots
et Consignations, the organisation in charge of managing funds of
private origin for economic and social development
- Private and semi-private organisations, such as the Paris transport
authority (RATP) and the water company La Lyonnaise des Eaux.
Other companies have since joined the SSP, notably the national railway
company (SNCF) in 1996 and the national gas and electricity utilities
(Gaz de France and Electricité de France) in 1997.
c. An active approach to attracting supplementary financing
To broaden the range of services provided for the homeless, the
SSP actively seeks supplementary financing. By stressing the sense
of community inherent in its work, the SSP has attracted financial
assistance from private corporations keen to present real images of
good corporate citizenship. To ensure long-term support, a corporate
sponsorship committee has been established, whose charter binds partners
to support and develop the SSP’s current and future activities
over the long term, according to individual areas of expertise.
The SSP has signed an agreement with the national health insurance
organisation to contribute to the financing of medical care provided
for the homeless.
The SSP also receives donations of money and equipment from individual
and corporate benefactors.
By broadening its partnership, the municipality has been able
to strengthen existing services and launch new activities.
d.Consequences of the partnership
- The partnership has made it possible to offer services
that none of the participating organisations could have financed
alone.
- The SSP’s budget increased sevenfold between 1995
and 1998, but the cost for the Municipality of Paris rose by only
47%.
- Extending the partnership has made it possible to reduce
each partner’s share of the total investment.
- The share of the Municipality of Paris in particular has
decreased significantly: from 67% of the annual budget in 1995 to
25% in 1997 and probably 20% in 1998.
e. The services provided by the Samu Social de Paris
Emergency 24-hour hotline for the homeless. During
the day, the SSP’s professional telephone operators respond to
calls from homeless people with the main purpose of reserving them a
bed for the night. At night, the mobile assistance teams are sent to
meet homeless people and offer them a bed for the night in response
to calls from the people themselves or from others. The SSP works in
partnership with organisations and associations that provide temporary
accommodation for the homeless.
Mobile assistance teams
comprising a nurse, a social worker and a driver go and find homeless
people who may be in extreme distress. Their mission is to offer accommodation
to victims of social exclusion and to give an emergency diagnosis of
their health and welfare needs.
Accommodation centres with a total of around 500 beds have been made available by the SSP’s
partners. There are different types of accommodation to meet diverse
needs. Depending on the severity of the nurse’s and social worker’s
diagnosis, the homeless person will be taken to ordinary crisis accommodation,
to crisis accommodation with nursing care where he/she will be examined
by a team of nurses and by a general practitioner the following day,
or to a hospital.
Day shelters. In addition to
the SSP’s emergency work, several Solidarity-Reinsertion Centres
have been opened (see Espaces Solidarité-Insertion below).
Research arm (l’Observatoire de la Grande Exclusion et
de la Précarité) whose role is to study the problems
and issues associated with homelessness.
In 1996, the
Samu Social de Paris took care of more than 46,000 people during the
night, after 35,000 in 1995.
II. The Espaces Solidarité Insertion
a. Another public-private partnership on the initiative of the
Municipality of Paris
Building on the success of the SSP, in 1996 the Municipality of
Paris took the initiative of teaming up with the national government
and the Paris transport authority (RATP) to set up and operate day
shelters providing facilities to assist homeless people reintegrate
into society: the Espaces Solidarité Insertion (ESI)—Solidarity-Reinsertion
Centres. An agreement detailed the expenditure on investment and operation.
b. Complementary services to the SSP
Each ESI offers the following:
- Reception and personal hygiene facilities
- Restoring self-esteem: through access to newspapers,
a television, a library, a café, a hairdresser, a podiatrist,
etc.
- Medical and paramedical assistance from general
practitioners, psychiatrists, dermatologists, alcohol addiction specialists,
etc.
- Welfare services: an area where interviews can
be held, such as with lawyers to recover rights.
- Implementation of an employment corner, containing
newspapers, job advertisements, links with the national employment
office (Agence Nationale Pour l’Emploi)
The ESI are in contact with the night shelters to provide crisis accommodation
for people referred during the day. In 1997, an ESI was set up inside
a hospital (Pitié Salpétrière) for people whose
state of health necessitates hospitalisation.
These experiences in combating social exclusion have developed
and diversified thanks to the combined efforts of numerous contributors.
The size and diversity of the partnerships involved have made it possible
to implement services on a large scale. The initial effort made by
the municipality to set up these services now seems tiny in relation
to the subsequent expansion of activities.
We would like to thank the City of Paris and the Samu Social
de Paris for sending us this information.
For more information,
please contact:
Anne Constance Onghena,
Public Relations,
Samu Social de Paris,
35, avenue Courteline 75012
Paris
phone: (33) 01 41 74 84 56
Roland Moreau
Head of Welfare
Children’s and Health Affairs, Municipality of Paris
94-96, quai de la Rapée 75570
Paris cedex 12
phone: (33) 01 43 47 70 00
|
