On the Move

Since my last post at the end of August, I have been going through an incredibly tiring journey, even though it had just begun. I found it exceedingly difficult to find short-term housing while staying in Paris. I initially found my home for August by scouring the web, specifically Facebook marketplaces and ex-pat/student housing groups, to find the studio I leased in the 3rd arrondissement right next to Les Halles.

It was cozy with a fantastic location in the city's heart, only an 8-minute walk from the shopping district Les Halles. I was completely unaware of how fortunate I had been to secure this prime location from Facebook halfway across the world in Chicago, IL. All grocery stores, great food spots, art galleries, and clubs were within walking distance.

Additionally, I stumbled across a substantial Nigerian and West African community right next to me in Strasbourg-Saint Denis that handled all my hair-related needs, from braiding to hair care products. Specific members of this group started to look out for me and advise me while I got my hair done.

And ultimately, this connection led to me conducting my first interview with a hairdresser who migrated from Nigeria to work in France, and she described her negative experiences with white, entitled Parisiennes. They want African hairstyles but threaten not to pay or are problematic when they don't like the resulting outcome.

My location was convenient and foundational for all the lasting connections and relationships I would develop in the coming months since they all formed within a mile (1.6 km for those metric inclined) radius of my August home. It made conducting my interviews and getting my equipment easier since they were never too far due to public transport. However, this ideal situation quickly faded as the month closed, and I had the near-impossible task of finding an apartment in Paris for September and October without student benefits.

Finding housing in Paris can be hard for a list of reasons:

• You likely have to make 3-4x the RENT!?
• Often need a French garant: basically a person that reassures landlords that you can pay your rent every month
• Many require renting dossiers, some of which need French citizenship or work history
• A lot of different agencies and rental websites, which can be scams or upsell you as an expat

It's a competition to find housing in this city, like many major cities, but racial and in-group bias must be accounted for when dealing with French landlords. The SOS Racism organization focuses on abolishing and combatting racial discrimination in France and found that one in four agencies agree to select future tenants based on a prejudicial criterion, which shows racism is unsurprisingly present in the colorblind society. Who would have guessed?

Furthermore, several activists from this organization contacted 136 agencies by telephone pretending to be landlords with discriminatory demands against future Black or Arab tenants to minimize "neighborhood issues." This study found that 32 out of 136 agencies agreed to discriminate against future tenants. When this element of racism is compounded by the housing shortage in France (especially in Paris), finding housing as a person of color will likely be more difficult in the City of Lights. Unfortunately, this was my experience since I was looking for affordable short-term housing, which is harder to find than long-term on top of these other obstacles to securing a place to live in the city.

As a result, residential instability was an issue that I regularly faced, and out of deep desperation for housing, I got scammed for a sizable amount of money. Not my finest hour. But in my defense, the thieves in Paris are pretty good at scamming out and using innovative methods to finesse. So the story goes, I used Facebook Marketplace once more, thinking I would find a place since sites like Seloger.com and Garantme.com could have been more helpful in finding a new apartment.

I found a property I liked in a good location at an affordable price, a little less than a week before I had to move out. We then exchanged emails, but they mainly spoke French, so that I couldn't detect any strange wordings or sketchy elements from our correspondence. They wanted me to transfer my cash into NeoSurf coupons, which I figured were safe since they would not have access to my codes. However, I foolishly went along with "authenticating" my coupons on what I believed was a trusted website...It wasn't...and before I realized that they could extract the codes and withdraw my money, it was too late. I had to hold that L, which was saddening at first. I rapidly cycled to the stages of grief and accepted that I got played.

Although I had accepted that my bank account was lighter, I still had to face the reality that I didn't have a home on September 1st. I packed my bags calmly despite not knowing where I would move to, and I had already told myself I would not get an extremely expensive AirBnB. I had lost enough money from getting scammed, so I contacted a few friends to see if I crash with them while looking for a new place, to no avail.

One did help me pack, so I was very grateful for their kindness. Despite being a little worried about the impending homelessness, I had complete faith that God would do something miraculous, and I would somehow pay the price less than AirBnb at some location. My belief was rooted only in spiritual intuition since I had tried everything I could and figured it was out of my reach now. The culmination of favor and manifestation led to what came next.

My uncle in Nigeria, who my mother alerted of my predicament, sent his childhood friend, who moved to the outskirts of Paris for work, to help me. I sat by myself on my luggage next to my former apartment. My friend had already left for work, so I decided to have an impromptu photoshoot to remember this moment. I was strangely unfazed, as you can tell from the photo below. I just listened to some soul music while I waited for my family friend to arrive, wondering if I would find a place with his help. He came about an hour after I was waiting and then connected me to a Nigerian landlord with whom I rented a place in Le Kremlin-Bicêtre, a suburb of Paris, for two weeks. He showed me the neighborhood and helped me register for a metro card to commute into the city's heart.

The Recap

Although I was very thankful for the housing, I was back hunting for a home since two weeks flew by faster than you might think. I had to grow more comfortable with constant discomfort, which was mentally taxing. I had to repeat the process of relentlessly searching for an apartment but yet again, to no avail. Thankfully, my mentor Monique Wells connected me to another person I rented a room from for another two weeks. Her help and my uncle and his friends were critical during this transitional period. At this second location, I stayed within the 11th arrondissement, which I fell in love with during my short stay and hope to live there even if I ever return to Paris.

I enjoyed my short stay here since my landlord was hospitable and generous, occasionally preparing me meals and gifting me with valuable life advice. During my stay here, I connected with a creative that related to my work which fortunately offered me housing for a month in Saint-Maur-des-Fossés, Val-de Marne, before I moved to Japan. This area was 25 minutes from the outskirts of Paris.

Once settled in this neighborhood, I needed to rest because moving is a physically and mentally draining process, and I had moved four times in three months. Although I could find housing due to being well-connected and vigilant, the ordeal made me so grateful for my August housing. As I started this article in my last apartment in France and now finish it in the long-term housing I found in Japan, I reflect on my housing journey in Paris as one of the most chaotic times in my young adult life. Yet despite the repeated adversity and uncertainty, I was able to find mental clarity and still find great success in developing lasting relationships, building on my research and career, and enjoying Paris' sublime environment.

If I had to do it again, I would have preferred to be in one place for my entire stay. However, the silver lining of constantly moving forced me to see the different perspectives of living and interact with people from various backgrounds. Whether I was playing basketball with Black children from the block in Le Kremlin Bicêtre or sharing meaningful conversations with my Spanish neighbor on French society in Saint Maur, I grew and enjoyed my environment. Things happen how they happen, but how we extract meaning from what transpired defines those moments and endears them to our character.