6

The article focuses on homeless people living in Lille, a medium-sized metropolis in northern France. We address the issue of their intertwined drug consumption and search for solvency through various licit and illicit activities. Heroin in particular was massively used by the persons we interviewed; although heroin prices have dropped since the 1970’s, its purchase still remains an important investment for those whose daily lives are characterized by deprivation (unemployment, lack of housing and healthcare, disaffiliation from family, etc.). As we show, the homeless manage their daily expenses as well as their drug use, mostly through panhandling and hustling. Trafficking drugs can be a solution as well, which is both very risky and profitable. By analysing how drug use and the search for solvency influence each other, this article shows that homeless people at the margins of work engage in various activities and take part in a peculiar economy and that those practices contribute to financing their drug use as well as that of more entrenched users.