It’s an understatement to say that the tour of what is more like a storage room than accommodation is quickly done… Céline Avcu, 45, has lived with her husband and three children since December 2021 in a tiny apartment on rue le Reynard in the Saint -Michel, in Bordeaux, which she maintains as best she can. The accommodation is very cramped, it includes the main room (7 m2), a kitchenette, a bathroom and a small blind room in a damp basement, which is used for the three bedroom children (and does not count as surface livable). All for the exorbitant sum of 450 euros. “Our families did not want to welcome us, we are all alone, testifies Céline Avcu. If I had a solution, we wouldn’t be here. »
A fight against mold
The forty-year-old bricks the poorly ventilated apartment with bleach, from floor to ceiling, so as not to let the mold settle in, which invariably returns after two to three days. It’s a daily battle because clothes, suitcases, blankets, sheets, cushions rot at high speed and she is ruined in laundromat costs to keep her things clean. “Look, I left a little (of mold) to show you around the window and there it’s nice, I have to remove it because my children could touch it”, she shows, specifying that When he arrived the accommodation was very dirty. Since they slept in this cellar behind the door of which there is a puddle of waste water, her children have had respiratory problems. “They are on ventolin, says the mother, worried. Often at night they vomit, I always have the basin close at hand. »
This apartment was to be a temporary solution for the Franco-Turkish couple arriving from Istanbul. The father of the family, who arrived in October 2021, had obtained a permanent contract in the building and the lease for the accommodation was offered to him at the same time, by the wife of his employer. His wife was to join him two months later and the owner had promised a transfer to a two-room apartment at that time. But lo and behold, before his family joins him, the father lost his job overnight and the family of five find themselves stuck in this cramped and unsanitary accommodation.
Get the family out of this dump as soon as possible
“The hygiene services of the town hall of Bordeaux came and drew up a report which highlights a whole bunch of irregularities, as unsanitary housing and with a real living area of less than 9 m2 (minimum area for the main room)”, explains Daniel Roy, representative of the association Right to Housing (DAL) 33, whose family has become closer. The report was sent to the owner and the legal procedure requires that he be given a deadline to comply. “At the end of this contradictory period until May 6, the apartment may be subject to a decree of unsuitability for habitation (issued by the prefecture), in particular because of its size, explains Stéphane Pfeiffer, deputy to the housing at the town hall of Bordeaux. If this decree is taken, she will no longer be able to rent out her apartment and will, on paper, be responsible for relocating the occupants. But since only one person is on the lease, the relocation might not involve the whole family.
To get her family out of this slum, Céline Avcu has taken many steps. She filed an enforceable right to housing on the advice of the social services of the department “but it takes months and there is not necessarily housing available”, comments Daniel Roy. Regular power cuts and threats of flooding of the cellar-bedroom end up rotting the daily life of the family, in debt. “The owner wants us to leave, believes Céline Avcu, she knows that what she is doing is illegal and she saw that we were not going to let it go. It’s not normal to live like that, for anyone. »
She filed applications for social housing in 12 municipalities of the agglomeration and her lawyer Bruno Bouyer launched an action in summary proceedings for which a hearing date is expected very soon. “I ask that the judge order the suspension of the obligation to pay the rent, insofar as the accommodation is not in a decent state and that it is barely habitable for the whole family, explains the council. In the process, I will initiate an action against the owner for compensation for the damage suffered. “In connection with the services of the department, the town hall will work for a quality rehousing of this family in the social park, at the end of the procedure.
The headmistress of the neighborhood school where the couple’s eight-year-old daughter is educated was on hand Thursday to support the family. “I think that at least 10% of the children attending the school experience problems of poor housing, she testifies. Many families live together in one room and some sleep in their cars. »
This Thursday, 20 minutes failed to reach the owner of the accommodation in question.