Following an administrative enquiry on the initiative of the “Department for social action”, a working group (government officials, representatives from public companies, solidarity associations/bodies, and social workers) produced a report in 1999 which is to date the only document of an official character devoted to squats/squatters. This report attempts a first approach to the national significance of the phenomenon, and distinguishes between squats/squatters by their greater or lesser accessibility to any social action. The general orientation of the report defends a likely progressive disappearance of squats, thanks to the set-up of a social accompaniment for squatters, and lasting over time. In such a view the squat under certain conditions becomes a pathway towards insertion. The article details the various recommendations of the report for controlling public law and order, the reconciliation of ownership/property rights with a right to housing – and responses to the claims sometimes made by squatters in the matters of habitat, lodging and social action. Its author also endeavours to answer various criticisms made of the report since its publication.