The squatters movement in Bordeaux constitutes an unusual experiment in its institutional component, as well as in the issues now raised between this latter and the public authorities. Within a self-managed squat whose leaders maintained close links with actors external to the political and/or associative movements, an association “Coordination SDF” (“Homeless coordination”) then emerged, which encouraged a project for the social treatment of the homeless problem. When the public authorities put forward concrete answers to their claims, by proposing to them the set-up – which they accepted – of two reception facilities for the homeless: “social residences”, they were then caught in a noose between a group of squatters who refused such institutionalisation – and thus felt themselves excluded – and the external actors. Although this experiment is now ended, the structures entrusted to a recognised association, and the former fellow-members thanked for their services, it remains rich in lessons about the capacities and resources of certain squatters.