Forgotten Souls on Shen Puantu Manor.

The residents of the dilapidated Cheng-Pointeu housing complex in a notorious Paris suburb called Clichy-sous-Bois have yet to benefit from the city's promised renovation program.

Despite the government's promises, the mise-en-scène of the Chaîne-Pointeu housing estate, in northeastern Paris, continues unabated. It was here in 2005 that two teenagers died after being electrocuted in a power station while fleeing from police. Their deaths sparked weeks of national unrest.

A period of intense media scrutiny and government reflection on the appalling social and economic decline of France's troubled suburban ghettos followed. The government''promised action and allocated billions of euros for redevelopment projects. But five years later, life in Cheng-Pointeu, which is dominated by an immigrant population with skyrocketing unemployment, is as bleak as ever.

The mayor of Clichy-sous-Bois, Claude Dillain, believes that Cheng-Pointeu is a "discreet slum neighborhood." The residential complex consists of two ten-story towers built in the 1960s, housing 1,500 individual apartments. It is home to 6,000 people, more than half of whom live below the official poverty line (950 euros a month).

The elevators in the apartment complex are so old that spare parts for them are no longer manufactured. None of them have been working properly for several years. The staircases are damp and there is mold everywhere. Naked wires''dangling, no mailboxes are functioning, and the walls are covered with hundreds of tags. At the sight of this residential complex, it is hard to believe that the elegant buildings and graceful facades of Paris are only a few kilometers away. The state of ruin is so severe that the idea of a full and complete renovation is completely unrealistic.

Till then, a small group of residents, gathered under the slogan "Together we can clean up Sheng Puantu," is trying to make improvements. "The more this place physically deteriorates, the more it encourages anti-social behavior," says Hanan Lakal, the only member of the group who has a full-time job. She organizes cleanups with local youth groups. Sometimes they go through the entire apartment complex with''with garbage bags. "We have to be careful," she says. "Some people just throw trash out of their windows." A day earlier, a bag of dirty diapers fell off her.

The conditions in the apartments themselves reflect the chaos and destruction outside. Residents long ago stopped counting the number of leaks and broken windows, which are often taped together or replaced with rags. As the weather turns colder, many of these dwellings are left without hot water or central heating: pipes are chewed up and rusted.

The leader of the owners' association is missing

Six years ago, the court appointed lawyer Florence Tulier as head of the owners' association of the Sheng-Pointeu apartment complex, responsible for maintaining the buildings and the neighborhood'. 'territories. In France, such associations are a legal requirement where there is more than one dwelling in a building. "She has failed in her mission 100 percent," says Hanan Lacalle.

Florence Tulier did not respond to repeated requests by FRANCE 24 TV for an interview.

The slumlords.

The housing problems of the apartment complex are exacerbated by the presence of slum owners who own a large number of apartments and use them to exploit vulnerable immigrants. One such owner owns 54 apartments in Sheng Puantu. Its tenants are mostly immigrant families,''who are often in France illegally. They have no choice but to accept the conditions on offer.

On the ninth floor of a block, two immigrant families from Africa share a small one-bedroom apartment - nine people in a space barely 30 square meters. In one of the rooms, a couple struggles with administrative paperwork while their daughters watch cartoons on TV. The room, though small, is at least clean. It's warm - they are lucky to feel some warmth. They are especially fortunate in that one of the daughters recently had heart surgery. Nevertheless, she has to climb nine floors of stairs every day. Both families pay a total of €1200 a month for an apartment that is located far from''ideal. "There are worse," Hanan says. "In another block, there are four families, 17 people, living in 65 square meters ....

It's a long process

These slum owners are on the radar of local authorities, although there is little that can be done. "We are working with the police, the courts and the tax authorities," says Olivier Klein, deputy mayor of Clichy-sous-Bois. "Owners can be fined if their properties are in poor condition or prone to over-occupancy." "Legally, tenants do not have to pay rent for housing deemed unfit for habitation. We can also look to landlords for exploiting the vulnerability of their tenants, which is a criminal offense. "

But these procedures are time-consuming. And slum landlords know how to