2024-04-10 06:51:17
In a premises next to the town hall of Nogent-sur-Vernisson, a small town of 2,500 inhabitants in the canton of Montargis (Loiret), Secours catholique opens an office on Tuesday morning every two weeks, alternating with the the neighboring antenna of Châtillon-Coligny. This morning in early April, volunteers are distributing monthly service vouchers, limited to 10 euros per person, due to the growing number of beneficiaries.
In this territory which is both isolated and very large, insecurity is hitting more and more households hard: mothers raising their children alone, some young people who are unemployed or in training – facing mobility problems – many retirees or fifty-year-olds who recently lost their jobs.
“The deterioration of the economy has amplified the phenomenon”
“Around ten years ago, across the two communes, we saw 5 or 6 families. Since the Covid crisis, we have welcomed around sixty people,” recognizes Marie-Thérèse Pommet, head of the Nogent-sur-Vernisson team for around ten years.
“People who were already working in a somewhat precarious situation found themselves with nothing. In Châtillon-Coligny, a more commercial village than here, many stores have never reopened. » The employees left behind have never managed to bounce back elsewhere.
In recent months, the general deterioration of the economy, under the effect of inflation in food and energy prices going hand in hand with the cessation of the decline in unemployment, has amplified the phenomenon: “We have doubled the number of supports in a year”, observes Emmanuel Barbier, the regional delegate of the charitable association, who manages as best he can to absorb the resurgence of needs throughout the department.
“The increase we see here is true elsewhere, in rural areas as well as in cities. Last year, we distributed the equivalent of 190,000 euros in social assistance, compared to an average of 120,000 euros. We will not be able to absorb these increases indefinitely,” he warns.
“To eat, this help is essential”
That day, a 54-year-old woman on disability went to the Secours catholique office with her two grandchildren to collect her service voucher. This former employee of an industrial dry cleaner, away from employment since 2012, survives on 600 euros per month: “I simply have no choice. For eating, this help is essential.” The increase in the amount of her rent has further weakened the situation of this fifty-year-old who would like to find part-time work.
“Because of my disability, it is impossible for me to work more hours. But my age doesn’t make it easy for me,” explains, resignedly, this mother of six daughters. Last year, she benefited from food distributions from Restos du coeur. “I stopped to avoid traveling because of the price of gasoline. And as I am all alone, I was only given vegetables and no meat, unlike families with children. I came back with almost nothing.”
At the town hall, not a week goes by without Maryse Tripier, the vice-president of the CCAS, receiving a call for help from new people with a comparable profile.
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