It is 7 p.m., and the last employees of Amix PTV, an IT company, have all left their offices located in the Fleury-sur-Orne business area (Calvados), to return to their homes. A few minutes following their departure, the front door reopens discreetly, the lights come back on: “Zaza”, as everyone calls her here, has come back to what has become her part-time accommodation.
A sofa, a closed wardrobe, toilets: it didn’t take much to prevent this former homeless man from spending cold winter nights outside. Homeless for ten years in France, this Georgian in his fifties has benefited from sustainable accommodation since August 2022 in this computer company. In the evenings and on weekends, Zaza finds refuge in the premises, made available to her outside working hours.
Behind this initiative, an association: the Bureaux du Coeur. In 2020, this organization was born on the basis of a very simple idea: to encourage companies to open their premises to accommodate a homeless person. The idea germinated in the consciousness of its founder, Pierre-Yves Loaëc, director of the communication agency Nobilito and president of the Center for Young Leaders of Nantes, when he saw a woman sleeping in a parking lot near his office: “We had a kitchen, a shower, toilets, in short, there was not much missing for me to be able to offer this woman to welcome her with dignity. »
Eighty-five partners
One thing leading to another, 150 people have been accommodated since the beginnings of the association within the network of partner companies, currently numbering 85. Aurélie Arsène, the manager of the Amix PTV agency, very quickly draw a positive conclusion from this experience: “Zaza is great, very discreet. Some employees were afraid for their business, but these fears quickly disappeared. Above all, he doesn’t want to sit around doing nothing. He participates in associative workshops and manufactures furniture with pallets. »
The Bureaux du Coeur work hand in hand with other associations to identify potential beneficiaries. Among other criteria, the person accommodated must not have an alcoholism or mental health problem. Beyond accommodation, Pierre-Yves Loaëc emphasizes the spontaneous mobilization of employees to “help the person to redo his CV” or lend a helping hand administratively. The idea is also to bring the beneficiary closer to the business world and allow him to benefit from his network of contacts.
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