Anne Hidalgo had the promise: the crack users, grouped since mid-May in the Jardins d’Eole, on the edge of the 18th and 19th arrondissements of Paris, were evacuated overnight from Tuesday to Wednesday. And the park, after having been cleaned from top to bottom, was returned to residents. But no immediate solution has been found to take care of the 150 or so drug addicts, the vast majority of whom are wandering. This is why the prefecture was opposed to this evacuation. Interview with François Dagnaud, the PS mayor of the 19th arrondissement of Paris.
In mid-May, when the Paris City Hall and the Paris Prefecture decided to bring together crack users in the Jardins d’Eole, you mentioned “the least bad solution”. What is your take on his evacuation today?
I kept these words when setting up this new plan, but we must keep in mind the commitments of the time: a very important presence of associations of aid to drug addicts and a reinforced presence of the security services to avoid a transfer to neighboring buildings. It is clear that this was not the case. This evacuation is a commitment we have made to residents. It was expected and is experienced as a relief even if it remains only a step.
No care solution for these drug addicts has yet been decided. Are you not afraid of a transfer of this population, the majority of which is in a situation of wandering, in the surroundings?
Of course, there are concerns and questions, but we weren’t going to stay in this status quo forever. A solution had to be found, the residents did not understand that we could let people take drugs without being worried in the park next to their homes. We were therefore not going to do elsewhere what was badly perceived here. We need long-term solutions, that’s why we appeal to the state. A district of Paris cannot alone bear all of the problem of crack in France. We advocate for a metropolitan network of accommodation facilities with medico-social and even psychiatric support. And to attract these people in a situation of dependency, we must be able to let them consume.
But for now, no place has been arrested. And it will take several weeks or even months at best. How to manage this in-between?
There may be intermediate solutions, in particular open places of care, away from the population, but this heritage rather belongs to the State.
Had the situation improved around Stalingrad Square since the drug addicts grouped together at the Jardins d’Eole? Don’t you fear a “relapse”?
There has been a marked improvement in the Stalingrad-Flanders district, especially during the day and in the early evening. We still meet a few drug addicts but it’s not like before, when there were dozens of them stagnant in the public space. So, obviously, we will ensure that there is no going back. Dealers must be prevented at all costs from relocating to the neighborhood since consumers will follow them. No one can accept to see a neighborhood under the influence of crack cocaine.