Overview
- Samu social said he died in Paris on November 16 after a “probably cardiac” malaise and was 87.
- He co-founded Médecins Sans Frontières in 1971 after training as a physician.
- He created the Samu social de Paris in 1993 to reach people sleeping rough and connect them to shelter through the 115 hotline.
- He served as secretary of state for emergency humanitarian action from 1995 to 1997 under President Jacques Chirac.
- He later led the High Committee for Housing of Disadvantaged Persons from 1997 to 2015 and resigned as Samu social president in 2011 when the group was reportedly 92% state-funded.