2023-07-31 18:04:41
Chaimaa came from Algeria five years ago to be able to live a marriage that was not accepted in her family. Today, the one who had crossed the Mediterranean for a life made of love in France finds herself on the street with her three children aged 1, 4 and 6. She, like 296 people have been returned to the streets in recent weeks by the prefecture of the Haute-Garonne. “If the prefecture does not find a solution, I find myself sleeping in the street with my children … I don’t know anyone here”, deplores the mother, destitute at the foot of the prefectural building while waiting for news of their situation, Monday . For a year and a half, this family from Algeria has been able to live thanks to the emergency accommodation offered by the State services, but for the past few weeks, hundreds of people have been receiving deportation letters within eight days.
197 people without a solution
“Accommodating people in hotels is obviously not a solution”, admits Rémy, spokesperson for the association Droit au Logement 31, this Monday at the heart of a rally against these evictions. “On the other hand, putting these families back on the street in eight days, without providing a solution, is illegal” according to the association, which counts 131 children returned to the street and 197 people in connection with the 115 without result.
“A pregnant woman was put back on the street, a woman with cancer too, not to mention the children! And according to justice, these are not people in a situation of vulnerability, it is incomprehensible”, continues the spokesperson of DAL31. “We ask that the character of vulnerability be recognized for children and sick people, at least”. Alongside these families, a hundred people had gathered in support pending a new decision from the prefecture.
72 million euros per year for the prefecture
For its part, the prefecture of Haute-Garonne justifies, in a press release of July 26, that “the hotel emergency accommodation stock has been multiplied by 5 since 2017. More than 2000 people are welcomed there every day in addition 9,187 permanent places, financed by the State, for emergency accommodation. This represents a cost of 72 million euros per year for our department. Despite this, in view of unprecedented pressure, due to the intensity of migratory flows, the accommodation sector is today saturated. »
The State services add that “the overnight stays last for periods that are out of all proportion to accommodation which must absolutely remain temporary. In the absence of fluidity, it will be unable to respond to the reception of any new request in urgent need of support. As a reminder, these “hotel nights” are intended to temporarily accommodate a wide variety of profiles of homeless people: families with or without children, women victims of violence, isolated people who may suffer from various vulnerabilities. 80% of the places occupied are by foreigners in an irregular situation. »
“Not everyone can access housing”
Temporary accommodation therefore, but “not everyone can access accommodation: undocumented migrants, people who don’t have a job or who work on the black market… It’s not that simple. These people do not benefit from housing, they just have no other solutions”, develops Roland Mamin, president of the association Droit au logement 31.
“The end of care for people accommodated in hotel rooms, as part of emergency temporary sheltering, is essential in view of the very long durations, and without any prospect. The notifications issued concern people who have been housed for more than a year or even much longer in the system and whose situation has not changed, ”replies the prefecture for its part.
But this Monday, the latter was unable to meet the expectations of the families and associations gathered… Contacted, she has not yet shed any light. And on the forecourt, tongues are loosened… “Rugby World Cup or Olympic Games effect… We want to empty the hotels”, slips a demonstrator. While homeless families, they ask only one question: where to sleep tonight.
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