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  • The Abbé Pierre Foundation
    • Organisation
      • Raymond Etienne, President for life and Founding Member
      • Board of Directors
      • Headquarters of the Foundation Abbé Pierre
      • Our Friends and Sponsors
    • Locations
    • Our accounts
    • Abbé Pierre's life
  • Our actions
    • Building and renovating
      • Roofs first
      • 18 new houses in Ain Lagradj, in Petite Kabylia, Algeria
      • The "Héliades" in Saint-Dié: social housing and renewable energy
      • "2000 roofs for 2000 families": 2028 highly social housings in France
    • Improve and make the habitat decent
      • An apartment in the heart of Paris for a single-parent family
    • Counsel and accompany
      • "Allo Prévention Expulsions": 6500 households counselled and guided
      • First signature of a social microcredit in Haute Provence
    • Hosting and housing
      • 30 Solidarity Shops to give support to the most fragile
      • Inauguration of a new Family Hotel in Castelnaudary, in the Aude department
      • Eleventh National Solidarity Sports Meeting
    • Understand and call out
      • Regional variations of the Report on the State of Bad-Housing
      • Energy precariousness, left out during the energy transition ?
      • Good and bad students of the SRU law: the Foundation's 2011 prize list
      • An overview of housing exclusion in europe 2015
    • Raise awareness
      • High Impact Operation by the Foundation in front of the Ministry of Justice
    • Solidarity and responsibility
      • Improving the housing and living conditions of 3000 persons in Niger
    • Financing and carrying out projects
      • An emergency housing centre renovated in the Nord Pas-de-Calais
    • Helping the residents
      • Le Lavoir, a place of exchange and interaction
      • The New social restaurant of the Abbé Pierre foundation
      • The play “Parabole des Papillons”
  • Support us
    • Donate
      • Donation online
      • Donation by mail
      • Legacies, Donations and Life Insurance
    • Partnerships
      • Solidarity Lunch Vouchers
    • Taking part in the fight
      • Social networks
      • Volunteering
      • Get involved
  • Our publications
    • State of bad housing
      • The annual reports
    • Press releases
    • What about the others?
    • Multimedia library
      • Videos
      • Books
      • Webdocs

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Support us
Roofs first
Abbé Pierre's life

Our actions

Residents of the Family Hotel Ecohcère preparing their meal

The Foundation launched on April 3rd, 2012 "Roofs First", its new programme for highly social housing.

3 men living in insalubrious housing

Upgrading to standards, insulation, accessibility for the disabled... safety, decency and comfort must be guaranteed in housing persons in difficulty.

2 young women getting help in housing procedures

Evictions, undignified habitat... the Foundation accompanies each and every person in need when it comes to their access to housing rights.

On October 12th, the Languedoc Roussillon centre took part in the inauguration of a new Family Hotel partly funded by the Foundation.

View of the social housing buildings

An assessment of article 55 of the SRU law which stipulates that municipalities must have at least 20% council housing available on their territories.

Staff, volunteers and sympathisers gather in front of the Ministry of Justice.

The Foundation finances construction and renovation projects in France and abroad, with the help of the beneficiaries.

View of the inner yard of the farm house

A commemorative plate in honour of Abbé Pierre's call was revealed during the inauguration of the centre in Cambrai.

Three persons having lunch at the social restaurant of the Foundation in Metz

Change the way others look at you, change the way you look at yourself. Beyond "housing"; "living together".

The Fundation help 10 000 survivors to join their families in the North West.

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Also in the news

18 November 2015
An overview of housing exclusion in europe 2015
19 September 2013
Expulsions locatives : la Fondation Abbé Pierre en colère
05 September 2013
Inauguration of a new Family Hotel in Castelnaudary, in the Aude department
05 September 2013
First signature of a social microcredit in Haute Provence
05 September 2013
An apartment in the heart of Paris for a single-parent family
All the news

The Foundation Abbé Pierre in France

Regional Agencies

    Abbé Pierre with his family
    Read more
    Birth of Henri Grouès in Lyon
    The Grouès family first settled down in Sala Street, in the bourgeois neighbourhood of Ainay in Lyon before moving to one of the prosperous suburbs of the city, Irigny…
    1912
    Abbé Pierre aged 19
    Read more
    Meditative Beaver

    Henri Grouès, who took the name Abbé Pierre during the Résistance, was part of the first Lyon scout patrol.

    1931
    Abbé Pierre
    Read more
    The Abbé Pierre becomes MP of Meurthe-et-Moselle

    The Abbé Pierre becomes MP of Meurthe-et-Moselle: he wears the priestly cloth but doesn’t have the priestly speech. He will be re-elected twice (from 1945 to 1946 and from 1946 to 1951).

     

    1945
    The Abbé Pierre and rugmen
    Read more
    Neuilly-Plaisance, first Emmaüs community

    “The beauty of a city lies neither in its museums nor in its cathedrals… the beauty of a city is the absence of slums, the absence of homeless people.”

    1949
    A shantytown in the 50's
    Read more
    Permit to live

    At the beginning of the 50s, there are some fifty shantytowns in the Paris region.

    1950
    Read more
    Birth of the Ragmen

    “The origin of everything was my meeting with Georges, a parricide assassin who wanted to commit suicide. I get called and I say to him: well then, before killing yourself, come help me!”

    1951
    Abbé Pierre with Lucie Coutaz
    Read more
    A woman by Abbé Pierre’s side

    “Mother Coutaz” is there, with her typewriter, and the “little fellow with his cassock”, the Abbé’s nickname during that time…

    1951
    Read more
    The Abbé, first call for generosity

    “In turn, I would like to ask those listening to me a question: what will you do to help me build houses for the homeless?”

    1952
    Read more
    The beginning of the lobbying

    “True charity is about acting against injustice.”

    1953
    Read more
    The Killer Winter

    A series of tragedies push the Abbé to draw the attention of the politicians

    1954
    Donations are deposited at the Hotel Rochester
    Read more
    The insurrection of kindness

    Mrs Lamier’s hotel, 92 La Boétie Street, Paris.

    1954
    A city emergency from the sky
    Read more
    The Abbé Pierre, building agitator

    “The honour of a country lies not in the beauty of its monuments; it truly lies with the fact that all its residents have a roof.”

    1955
    Tents under the arches of the Pont de Sully
    Read more
    The arches of Sully Bridge

    One day during the winter of 1956, a Minister, most likely annoyed by the Abbé Pierre's public addresses, declares in a national newspaper: “the poor of Abbé Pierre should go sleep under bridges!”

    1956
    Raymond Etienne, current president of the Fondation, with Abbé Pierre
    Read more
    Creation of the Foundation Abbé Pierre
    “To make a positive contribution to the search for adequate solutions to the housing needs, the Foundation Abbé Pierre for the Housing of the Underprivileged is created.”
    Pont-Saint-Esprit, October 1987
     

     

    1988
    Abbé Pierre with Louis Besson
    Read more
    The Besson Law concerning the right to housing

    Art. 1 guarantees that the right to housing is a solidarity duty for the whole nation.

     

    1990
    L’abbé Pierre with Simone Weil
    Read more
    Wage war on misery

    The Abbé Pierre and Simone Weil inaugurate the Solidarity Shop, Bichat Street in Paris, in 1993.

     

    1991
    Abbé Pierre received at the Elysee by President François Mitterrand
    Read more
    Creation of the High Committee for the Housing of the Underprivileged

    “We all need to use our gifts, talents and skills to help everyone in a brotherly spirit.”

     

    1992
    Abbé Pierre reads a newspaper which the law against exclusion
    Read more
    The fight against exclusion: housing, a fundamental right

    “The 21st century will either be brotherly or will not be. It’s up to each one of us, regardless of belief or thought, to make sure this certitude comes to life.”

     

    1998
    The Abbé is named Grand Croix of the Order of the Legion of Honour
    Read more
    The Abbé is named Grand Croix of the Order of the Legion of Honour

    The defence of the rights of the human person and the promotion of his dignity.

    2001
    Abbé Pierre in Marseille Boutique Solidarity
    Read more
    Family Hotels, Solidarity Habitat Space : solidarity at work

    “It’s not up to our governments to tell us how to act in solidarity. It’s up to us to show them the society we want. They will understand.”

     

    2002
    Abbé Pierre with Gilles de Robien
    Read more
    The Abbé Pierre at the Sorbonne; the 50th anniversary of the call of February 1, 1954.

    “My friends, this is the real dimension of what brings us together tonight. It is war. And our minds must be made up to do all it takes to win.”

     

    2004
    The Abbé draws the attention of the MPs at the National Assembly
    Read more
    The Abbé draws the attention of the MPs at the National Assembly

    “My friends, I am sad, because in my country we have cheated… how did we come to favour those who least needed favours?”

     

    2006
    Abbé Pierre with a little girl
    Read more
    The Abbé Pierre stays in touch with Annie…

    Towards the end of his life, in 2007, he was still in close contact with this family.

    2007
    The crowd in front of the Church of Val de Grace in Paris
    Death of the Abbé Pierre at 5:25 am in Val de Grâce, in Paris

    “If I die tomorrow, everything is organised and ready to go on smoothly… I am not worried.”

    2007
    The Abbé's casket
    National funeral of the Abbé Pierre

    In the Notre-Dame de Paris Cathedral, attended by Jacques Chirac, members of the government and numerous figures. 

    “Thank you, Abbé Pierre, for setting such an example” Philippe Barbarin, Cardinal-Archbishop of Lyon.

    2007
    A tribute stamp representing the Abbé is issued
    Read more
    A tribute stamp representing the Abbé is issued
    2010
    Read more
    Play
    The Foundation commemorates the fourth anniversary of Abbé Pierre’s passing

    Saturday January 22, 2011, the Foundation paid tribute to its founder, everywhere in France. Events were planned in Paris, Lille, Marseille, Metz…

    2011
    Read more
    Play
    Philippe Torreton pays tribute to the Abbé Pierre

    This Friday January 20 at 5:30 pm, Philippe Torreton, one of the Foundations’s sponsors, read Abbé Pierre’s call – broadcasted on February 1, 1954 – on the Leopold Senghor footbridge, facing the Orsay museum in Paris.

    2012
    Read more
    Inauguration of the Abbé Pierre Centre in Esteville

    On the morning of Saturday, January 21, the Abbé Pierre Centre in Esteville was inaugurated in the presence of numerous personalities as well as several donors of the Foundation, who made the trip to discover this place of remembrance and life.

    2012
    Raymond Etienne and Jean-Marc de Pas
    Read more
    Unveiling of Abbé Pierre’s statue at the Foundation Abbé Pierre’s headquarters in Paris.

    In tribute to the 6th anniversary of its founder’s passing, the Foundation unveils this Tuesday January 22, at 11 o’clock, a full statue of Abbé Pierre.

    2013

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FONDATION ABBÉ PIERRE POUR LE LOGEMENT DES DÉFAVORISÉS

3 et 5 rue de Romainville - 75019 Paris

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Foundation Abbé Pierre for the Housing of the Underprivileged 3 et 5 rue de Romainville - 75019 Paris

Contact us 01 55 56 37 00
contact@fondation-abbe-pierre.fr
or by contact formPress conctact 06 23 25 93 79
msantoastaso@fondation-abbe-pierre.fr Donor services 01 55 56 37 25
service.donateurs@fondation-abbe-pierre.fr

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