Les Sans-Abris

Alors I'll address two ubiquitous themes here in Paris: the city covered in dogshit, and la grève. But it was when I was walking home from school the other day that I realized what else this city is filled with: bums! This day that I walked home though was no ordinary day; it must have been crazy people day because I literally ran into four of them on my way home, and had to check the news after to make sure it wasn't a National I-Am-Homeless-and-Crazy Day.
I'll start with the woman on the bus who was having a lovely conversation with...herself. Every person who would get on the bus, she would comment and criticise them (to herself). Ok, off the bus, run right into a guy who looks decently normal, just bought his lunch at McDonalds. Except, I think he has Tourette's, because he's violently cursing at someone invisible. Ok, crazy person number two. Then I walk to Monoprix on my way home to pick up some groceries. A homeless guy is cross-legged on the side of the road, bald shaved head and big Woody Allen type glasses. On a piece of cardboard with impeccable cursive, he writes something like "I am 53 years old without a job..blah blah" I never got a chance to read the whole sign because he was cursing and talking to himself, this time it was something about vélos. As I walked past, he got more worked up and starting shouting.
After three encounters in a row with crazy people, I have to wonder what the French government does for these people. Are there centres for somewhere to sleep? To eat? What choices do they have?
When you take the metro home at night, there's are always loads of dirty, barefoot homeless men just sleeping on the benches. Sometimes they even make a little nest with sleeping bags and found blankets. The word for homeless in French is either sans-abri or SDF (sans domicile fixe). I think the city has some centers around for them to go to, but honestly, the situation is pretty bad. Especially when you have immigrants coming from all over Africa, who can't find work or a place to live, and therefore just call the metro home.
There's a lot of criticism for example for the Sarkozy government because he made a lot of promises when he was campaigning for Pres in 2007. One of those promises was to ameliorate the living situations of SDFs and improve social work. But of course, just like all campaigns, it's all talk until they're elected. Now the French are looking at Sarkozy and asking themselves, Where are all these measures he promised us? Why is he helping big entreprises and not the little people? Why are the rich getting richer and the poor getting poorer? Some even compare him to Bush, saying he's France version of W.
Well, for the moment, I look with pity on the homeless folk who clog the metro and want to somehow help them. Although the task is a bit intimidating.