The Camus residence, on the Cité Scientifique campus in Villeneuve d’Ascq. – M.Libert / 20 Minutes
- In Villeneuve d’Ascq, in the North, two buildings of a university residence are in a particularly unsanitary condition.
- Residents complain in particular of the presence of cockroaches, mold and bedbugs.
- A communist deputy from the North is to challenge the Minister of Higher Education on this subject, Tuesday, in the National Assembly.
Sad chestnut tree. There are subjects that we deal with regularly when we would prefer not to have to talk about them anymore. This is the case with the dilapidated, not to say dilapidated, state of certain student residences on the Cité Scientifique university campus in Villeneuve d’Ascq, near Lille, in the North. Tuesday, in the National Assembly, the Communist deputy of the North, Alain Bruneel, intends to bring the voice of the inhabitants of these residences to the ears of Frédérique Vidal, Minister of Higher Education.
When you arrive on the Cité Scientifique campus, you don’t even notice the imposing Albert Camus residence, well hidden behind a curtain of trees. Composed of seven buildings, it forms a heterogeneous set of student accommodation. Between the recently renovated buildings and the pavilions W and X, there is a world. In front of the entrances, dumpsters overflowing with garbage. The windows are more than faded, sometimes even replaced by panels of plywood certainly not very insulating. The place to do everything to attract Urbex fans, except that it is not abandoned, at least not by its inhabitants. “It’s even worse than a prison because at least the prison is free,” says a resident of Pavilion X.
“Mold is included in the rent”
What motivated the deputy Alain Bruneel to intervene outside his constituency was a video shot by students showing the unwanted guests with whom they share their rooms: “Here, cockroaches and mold are included in the rent”, says Safwane, a student in international relations. He has lived in Pavilion X for seven years: “The residence deteriorates over time and trying to complain to the CROUS is equivalent to talking to a wall”, laments the young man.
The wood in her bedroom windows is rotten, letting the cold through. In its 9 m2, a single outlet works to power all its devices. “Anyway, I don’t have a fridge because of the cockroaches,” Safwane sighs, showing us the multiple traps set up to try to limit the invasion. Not to mention bed bugs.
The state of the toilets on each floor would deter even an adventurer like Mike Horn from washing. The cold air passes quietly through the rickety windows. “On my floor, there are only two showers and two toilets that work for 40 people,” Safwane continues. And what about the “kitchen”, equipped with a single sink and a single hotplate for all residents of Pavilion X? “I think that the CROUS does not wish to invest in a residence which will one day be renovated”, explains Boubacar, founder of the collective “Agir ensemble for the well-being of the students”.
“Buildings X and W will not be rehabilitated”
This is not quite true it seems. “Electrical renovation of the W building, the stairs of the emergency exits and the kitchens of the two buildings, renovation of eight sanitary blocks”. In all, 785,000 euros of work since 2019 according to Crous. The old wooden entrance doors of buildings X and W have recently been replaced by brand new aluminum joinery. Cost of the site: 35,000 euros. “At least the old door closed with a code. This is no longer the case today. Anyone can go in, there have been burglaries and homeless people sometimes come to take their shower, ”says another resident.
Much money has also been invested to completely renovate certain residences on this campus, in particular part of Camus in 2018. At the end of 2020, 24 million had been released to heavily refresh four buildings in the Bachelard and Boucher residences. For pavilions X and W? “Many of the students in these residences are foreigners who dare not complain because, anyway, they cannot afford to go and live elsewhere,” regrets Safwane. “We must freeze rents, relocate these students and rebuild these residences during this time,” insists MP Alain Bruneel.
Crous’s response, contacted by 20 minutes, is straightforward: “Buildings X and W will not be rehabilitated”, we are told. Property of Crous, they must be returned in 2023 to the University of Lille, which has not yet defined a project for this site. “Until then, we’ll have to empty buildings. We would like to do it quickly but we are running out of space to relocate the students because of the other residences which are currently under construction, ”assures the director of Crous, Emmanuel Parisis.