Wednesday, October 10, 2007

Housing and Social Networks

Housing and Social Networks

I have lived in other tough housing markets such as Berkeley, California and New York City but Paris today is much worse. I tried hard to live in a heavily immigrant neighborhood but I did not have enough economic guarantees and papers so the only apartment I could get was through social networks, a third degree connection (a friend of a friend of a friend). I was lucky to meet this person at the right time otherwise I would have stayed homeless for a while. Leaving on the west of the city and spending most of the day in the south, north and east of Paris will force me to compare all the social poles of the city.

No doubt there is a problem with housing in Paris, and a structural discrimination against foreigners and therefore immigrants. I will have to look more into this.

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