What brings the roommates of La Casa together is a desire to meet new people and live in community. “We cater to people who are going through a transition, changing their environment after a separation, moving to a big city, and who don’t want to live alone,” explains Victor Augais.
A growing sense of loneliness in France, particularly among young professionals, who report feeling lonely more than 50% of the time, compared to only 7% at La Casa, which measures the morale of its 600 roommates each year.
La Casa consists of large houses where everyone has their own bedroom and bathroom, but also shared spaces where residents can cook together, enjoy activities, or participate in afterworks that bring together all the Casas every two months.
In addition to common services like cleaning in shared areas and maintenance, La Casa offers specific services for community living, such as a shared grocery fund replenished at the beginning of the month for communal items, and the monthly delivery of a meal to be shared and cooked together.
"I am convinced that man is a social animal,” enthuses Victor Augais. "And I believe that knowing how to live in a community is a school for knowing how to live in society. It also creates good citizens.”
Beyond being an antidote to loneliness, La Casa addresses an environmental issue by sharing housing, furniture, and electricity bills; it also tackles the housing shortage. Where a suburban house might accommodate a family of 3 or 4, La Casa creates 12 rooms of 25 square meters each. These homes are never newly built but always renovated. “What we do is one of the only solutions to densify the city close to public transport without building new buildings.”
"So we are solving a very important housing problem in major cities because there is a shortage, especially for people living alone. Today, we are at an impasse in this regard, and we are not on a trajectory to solve this problem. What we do at La Casa can be part of the solution,” concludes Victor Augais.
