THE STREETS KILL: A WINTER WAKE-UP CALL

WINTER 2026 CAMPAIGN – FOUNDATION FOR HOUSING X ROSA PARIS

French NGO Foundation For Housing (Fondation pour le Logement des Défavorisés) and its agency Rosa Paris are launching a new campaign, directed by JODEB and produced by LA/PAC,  featuring a hard-hitting film to remind us that housing is a basic necessity - and living on the streets can be fatal.
In France, in 2026, there are 350,000 unhoused, compared with 143,000 in 2012. That number has continued to rise over the years, against an increasingly alarming backdrop: almost one million people without a home; 2.8 million on the waiting list for social housing, with their chances at an all-time low; and energy poverty forcing people to live in inhumane conditions, both in summer and winter.
With every indicator of poor housing conditions worsening, and poverty and inequality reaching record levels, the Foundation for Housing and its agency Rosa Paris decided to change their tone to bring this unprecedented housing crisis to public attention. Like hunger or disease, the streets kill. Yet too few people truly realize this.
Through this new campaign, the Foundation for Housing and Rosa Paris want to remind as many people as possible of a stark reality: living on the streets means more than insecurity, violence, hunger and cold. It can mean death.

CONFRONTING THE REALITY OF HOMELESSNESS

With no voiceover, Rosa Paris has chosen a radical, immersive and sensory approach to storytelling. A cold, clinical master shot slowly follows the zip of a body bag as it closes over a young woman’s body. Interspersed with this shot are first-person flashbacks, plunging viewers into her daily life and the violence she endures: an infected wound, a battered body, hunger, exhaustion. One after the other, each ordeal weakens her until the inevitable, fatal outcome.
As the story unfolds, it becomes clear that living on the streets means constant exposure to multiple dangers that injure, exhaust and can cost lives. Above all, it is being on the streets itself that kills.
By removing the distance between viewers and the reality they are witnessing, the film goes beyond showing hardship from the outside: it makes them experience it from within. Indifference, precisely what the campaign seeks to challenge, becomes impossible.
The clinical approach of the master shot, combined with visceral sound design, creates a tension that leaves viewers holding their breath. The close-ups give viewers glimpses of her life, leaving them to piece together her story.
The message isn’t forced on the viewer; it emerges from this sensory experience. Beyond each injury, assault or missed meal, living on the streets is itself life-threatening.. This realisation culminates in the campaign’s closing line: “Life on the street kills.”
By making this reality felt without flinching, the campaign underlines the urgent need to act. Behind this stark message lies the Foundation for Housing’s conviction that no one should be condemned to live on the streets. Through its day centres, access to housing and support services, the Foundation works every day to help those who “live” there regain dignified living conditions and find a way out.

CAMPAIGN ROLLOUT
The campaign launches on TV on 2 November 2026, followed by nationwide out-of-home advertising and a special installation at the Saint-Lazare station in Paris from 13 November. The key visuals were photographed by Aurélien Chauvaud. The campaign will also include digital out-of-home advertising, supported by radio, press and digital activity to maximise the message’s reach.

THE DIRECTOR · JODEB
The film is directed by JODEB, whose visceral, sensory style places viewers at the heart of the experience.

It’s difficult to make people feel concerned about people experiencing homelessness. And unfortunately, these campaigns often rely on making audiences feel guilty and stirring up strong emotions. We took a risk with this film: there is no voiceover telling you what to think. For me, its strength lies not in what you understand at first glance, which is fairly direct and clear, but in what comes afterwards, when you start wondering what just happened to you.
Are we really allowed to make films like this? Is it right or wrong? Is it real or not? Whatever the answer, it is impossible not to think about this person, whether you feel she has been humanised or dehumanised before your eyes.
I like that this film makes us question not only the subject, but also the way it is presented to us.”
Jodeb, Director