Squatters have moved into a vacant office block in Paris and also set up a tent city along a canal in the capital.
The office building, near the Paris stock exchange, has been nicknamed the "ministry for the housing crisis".
Three housing lobby groups took it over and then invited
families to move in. Homeless Parisians are also camping out in 200
tents by the Canal Saint Martin.
Lobby groups say about a million people in France are homeless, of whom 100,000 are sleeping on the streets.
Under the government plan, from the end of 2008, the
right to housing will apply to homeless people, impoverished workers
and single mothers.
All those living in slums are to benefit from the same right from the start of 2012, Mr de Villepin said.
The new legislation is designed to put housing in the
same legal category as education and health in French law. It is a key
demand of the campaign groups for the homeless.
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I don't think to say 'sleeping on the streets' is correct. It should be 'sleeping in the street'. Usually or rather I have seen homeless people sleeping in the pavements. If they sleep on the streets, the traffic should be detour. What do you think?