Everyday life, person with no fixed abode, person with fixed abode

For eight years, as a person with a fixed abode (ADF, in its French acronym) I worked with persons without a fixed abode labelled as homeless (SDF, in its French acronym) to set up and operate a service for people sleeping rough on the street around Les Halles, central Paris. The service is called bagagerie Mains libres (lit. hands-free luggage storage). It was opened to all and mobilized all parties’ skills. There were interactions with the homeless persons, known by their names, almost daily. Since my departure, the service has kept operating through random encounters in the streets of Paris. The snippets of life I relate in this article could not have been written up if I did not know my interlocutors by their first names.