Viviane (a pseudonym) is just 23 years old. With a somber expression, she watches over her four-year-old son, born in Libya during the long journey that brought her from Guinea to France. Her asylum request and appeal were both rejected, and in mid-May she was told to leave her emergency accommodation in Vernon, in northern France. Since then, mother and son have spent their nights with friends, in hospitals and at train stations so that her child could finish his pre-school year.

In early July, they arrived in Paris. Despite calling the 115 hotline for emergency shelter almost daily, they were never able to secure a spot. After a sleepless night on a bench at a bus stop near Gare Saint-Lazare, a social worker advised Viviane to go every evening to the square in front of City Hall. There, the citizen advocacy group Utopia 56 offers families and unaccompanied women an overnight stay – when space is available – in a building lent by a private company in the suburb of Bagnolet. Viviane slept there every night. She worried about her son's fragile health and the delayed response regarding his school enrollment. "I also want a roof over my son's head and to find a job. All I have to give him is my love," she said sadly.

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