Phone calls in distress, families on the street with freezing temperatures, stressed and cracking social workers… Scenes of despair have multiplied in recent days on the 115 listening platform, which directs applicants to places emergency accommodation. The situation is particularly catastrophic in Seine-Saint-Denis where hundreds of pregnant women and families with young children were turned back in early December.
The Great Cold plan has been activated, which should make it possible to unlock unoccupied places. However, this plan does not solve the basic problem, according to the president of the department of Seine-Saint-Denis, Stéphane Troussel, who wrote to the prefect of the Ile-de-France region, Marc Guillaume, to ask him for a ” territorial rebalancing”, according to a letter obtained by 20 minuteswho also spoke with its author.
Today in Seine-Saint-Denis, there are families with children, pregnant women and babies who sleep in the street. How is this possible and acceptable?
The cries of alarm are multiplying concerning the situation of emergency accommodation in Ile-de-France and Seine-Saint-Denis. The number of people trying to reach 115 without succeeding continues to increase, between 1,500 and 2,000 people a day. This does not mean that they do not end up being accommodated, but it shows the saturation of emergency accommodation. And this, even though there is a considerable number of homeless people who no longer even try to call 115. I refuse to be made to believe that this is inevitable. France is the 6th world power.
Do you know the number of people in the street in Seine-Saint-Denis?
No, we don’t know, there is no precise, rigorous evaluation. It should be remembered that emergency accommodation is the responsibility of the State. Local authorities took part in solidarity nights [opération annuelle de décompte de nuit des personnes sans-abri]but it does not make an exhaustive census.
The Great Cold plan has been triggered, but it doesn’t seem to be effective, why?
It is the whole chain of accommodation and housing that is seized up. The offer is saturated and concentrated. From the moment you have housing that does not correspond to the situation of a large number of people given their price, the scarcity and the high cost of land, you have a problem of access to housing. The proportion of applicants who are entitled to social housing but cannot obtain it has reached very high levels [seuls 10 % des demandes de logements sociaux sont satisfaites en Seine-Saint-Denis]. There are more and more precarious people, who cannot access affordable housing and go to unfit housing, and people who cannot even find unfit housing.
The Minister Delegate for Housing has asked the prefects to identify by Friday the buildings capable of offering temporary accommodation places, as part of the Great Cold plan. Do you know if public buildings will be made available in Seine-Saint-Denis, and which ones?
I don’t have the city-by-city detail, but empty gymnasiums and premises have been proposed. I know that La Courneuve makes a gymnasium available every year. It activates. But that doesn’t solve the problem permanently. It’s not the hardest part to open gyms. The problem is throughout the year. And it’s not easy to go to sleep in a gym. If the Great Cold plan must be triggered, it is because the emergency accommodation is saturated.
You challenged the prefect of the Ile-de-France region to denounce territorial disparities, can you explain to us?
The cries of alarm are multiplying concerning the saturation of emergency accommodation in Seine-Saint-Denis. This must be dealt with across the entire Ile-de-France. This cannot be regulated only at the level of Seine-Saint-Denis. We cannot sustainably continue to see Seine-Saint-Denis and Paris concentrate 65% of emergency accommodation in Greater Paris. This deep imbalance is viable neither for homeless people nor for Seine-Saint-Denis, we cannot face this situation alone. Because then, once people are at the hotel, there are social follow-ups, social support, local integration, a request for social housing and that’s normal. But everyone must take their share of solidarity and the balance will not happen by itself. I ask for a transparent and annual follow-up of the emergency accommodation offer in Ile-de-France and a precise and territorialized plan for the construction of emergency housing and affordable housing. And thirdly, the adoption of an “Emergency accommodation SRU” which would allow the territories to be sanctioned. The SRU law obliges to have a minimum percentage of social housing [25 %], the same would be needed for emergency accommodation. It is necessary that each city takes its share in the emergency accommodation and that the State imposes a quota of emergency accommodation in each territory. Supply needs to be rebalanced.
Can we say today how many places there are in each department?
The State knows but I don’t have the emergency accommodation nights and their distribution across Ile-de-France. It’s not far from being a well-kept secret. It should be remembered that emergency accommodation in our country is the responsibility of the State. The departments intervene in the name of child protection, because isolated women with children under three years old, or minors, are sheltered. We can intervene but not directly.
You also point out the hotels that no longer accept emergency accommodation as the Olympics approach.
I don’t point at them, I don’t want to be pointed at. Yes, there are going to be events and everyone knew it: the World Cup in 2023, the Olympic Games in 2024. have French and foreign visitors. When you build a hotel, it’s first to accommodate tourists. The reality is that because the emergency accommodation system is insufficient and saturated, there has been this redirection to overnight stays in hotels. The State must take hold of this situation to increase and rebalance the supply across the whole of Ile-de-France. As for Seine-Saint-Denis, it is already taking its share of regional and even national solidarity in terms of social housing and emergency accommodation.