Mireille Havet square in the 11th district of Paris has become, over time, a meeting point and refuge for homeless people. Next to the public toilets, a small kiosk sells coffee for one euro, a price almost unthinkable in the French capital. Dozens of people pass through that small square, which is named after a poetess, every day, turning it into a less inhospitable space for a few hours.
Until last January 15, when the body of a 75-year-old homeless woman and Mireille Havet’s regular friend was found dead not far from there. Since then, in the same place where she used to spend her hours, tied to a tree lies a yellow sign with several flowers, requesting citizen help to identify the woman and locate her relatives: “If you know her and have information that allows us to pay tribute to her, please contact us,” signed by the group. ‘Morts de la rue’ (‘Dead in the street’).
For 20 years, ‘Morts de la rue’ has been working alongside the authorities to identify those who die silently on the streets of Paris. Their work is not police, but human; that of reconstructing identities that the system was slowly erasing. “The work of remembrance is as necessary as that of raising awareness,” explains Chrystel Estela, director of the organization for EL PERIÓDICO.
When a homeless person dies, they usually do not have any type of identification document and there is no family contact that authorities can call. At that moment, with the help of the collective, the municipality where the person dies takes charge of their ID and, if no one close to him can be located, he assumes his burial in a common cemetery plot. “It is not we who identify the deceased, but the police. We can only help connect the dots that facilitate the identification of these people. The deceased are buried for at least five years by the municipality where they died. After this time, if no one claims it, a cremation is performed and the ashes are scattered in the cemetery,” says Chrystel.
This procedure, more administrative than spiritual, in many cases puts an end to the anonymity of those who lived much of their lives on the margins of society. The latest polls estimate that There are currently 350,000 people, including 3,000 children, sleeping on the streets of France.. A sad record that doubles the figure from 10 years ago.
935 deaths in 2025
For all of them, living poorly on the streets is synonymous with dying prematurely. According to several studies, their life expectancy is only 49 years, 30 less than the general population. Only in 2025, 935 people died in the streets of the country and many of them were not attended to until a few hours later, according to the count carried out annually by ‘Morts de la rue’. The last two deaths occurred during the cold wave that hit the French capital, when night temperatures reached up to 10 degrees below zero.
Although in the 57% of cases the causes of death are unknown25% correspond to external causes or violent deaths; 8% to diseases of the circulatory system; 4% to tumors, and another 5% to problems derived from mental disorders and other causes, especially linked to alcohol or drug consumption.
Makeshift bed in Place Mireille Havet in the 11th arrondissement of Paris / Leticia Fuentes
30 years less life expectancy
For the collective, naming these people, searching for their stories and placing flowers in the place where they died is not a simple gesture, It is also a political act. A way to denounce a reality that can always be avoided, the organization insists. “It is important to know these stories and raise awareness about a situation that could be avoided, and we always do this work as a team.”
‘Morts de la rue’ are not the only ones who daily denounce a situation that breaks all records: more and more people on the streets, more deaths and more minors, Social workers also denounce the explosion of cases as a consequence of the housing crisisthe unstoppable rise in prices and the freezing of salaries, which lead many people to live outdoors. “There are more and more minors and more people over 75 years of agealthough the average age is still about 48 years old,” explains Chrystel, who also points out that they have seen an increase in homeless women (13%), even though men continue to be the vast majority (82%).
Saturated social housing
The lack of social housing is another problem that fuels the homeless rate. In 2024, construction of 259,000 homes (of all types) began, compared to 435,000 in 2017. In social housing alone, less than one in five applicants receives a positive response in a year, notes the report by The Foundation for Housing the Disadvantaged, and the 115 telephone number social emergency dedicated to people in a situation of extreme vulnerability It fumes, receiving an average of 10 million calls a year.
The Foundation points out that with the increase in rents, retired people and those with some functional diversity are the new easy target to end up on the streets, but also minors, who despite having priority on the lists for access to social housing, are trapped in a saturated system.
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