For several days, temperatures in Bordeaux have dropped below zero overnight. An extremely complicated situation for the hundreds of homeless people who live in the metropolis. The associations ask the prefect to activate the “cold weather plan”.
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The features drawn, but the smile on the lips. Loïc spent the night outside, under a blanket, rue Vital Carles in the center of Bordeaux. And this, while the temperatures of the night fell to -2 ° C. And this is not a first for this homeless thirty-something, who has lived in the streets for years.
“I am used to it. I put myself under a blanket, I try to eat well in the evening, a hot dish … It is the mind that keeps you going “, he believes.
How many are they, like him, sleeping outside in the streets of Bordeaux in the winter cold? The number of homeless people in the metropolis is difficult to estimate. They are more than 2,500 in the Bordeaux conurbation according to associations. A significant figure, which includes people in squats and slums.
More than 1,500 reception places in Bordeaux
The prefecture, for its part, indicates that it has 1,791 emergency accommodation places in the Gironde department, including those deployed as part of the winter plan and those mobilized “in the event of exceptional circumstances”.
Among these places, 1,564 are located in Bordeaux and its metropolis (Bègles, Floirac, Pessac, Bassens). According to the prefecture, no saturation of these accommodations has been observed: at the beginning of January, the occupancy rate, updated every day, is 93%.
“Social watch systems (day care and patrolling) have been strengthened in order to reach out to people on the street and support them in their integration process”, specifies the prefecture.
The extreme cold plan called for
Insufficient for associations which request the implementation of a cold weather plan. This would allow the provision of new emergency accommodation places, in gymnasiums, communal rooms or association premises.
They claim to have requested the prefect Fabienne Buccio, through the CCAS, the Communal Center for Social Action of Bordeaux, to request its activation. And having been refused a refusal. [Nous sommes en attente d’un retour d’information de la Préfecture à ce sujet ]
“The extreme cold plan depends on certain criteria, indicates the prefecture. It depends in particular on climatic conditions. It is activated when temperatures are below zero day or night, for at least three consecutive days “.
Beyond these meteorological criteria, its activation, which can be left to the appreciation of the prefect, also depends on the occupancy rate of the existing accommodation places.
According to associations, around 120 people live in tents around Lake Bordeaux
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A petition brings together around forty associations
An insufficient argument for associations. A petition calling on the prefect to “protect those left in the street” has been signed by around forty associations, including Wanted Community, Darwin Solidarity, LDH and Médecins du Monde.
“The weather is rotten. People once had to endure the wind and rain from Storm Bella in December, now they get to zero temperatures at night. Can you imagine those experiencing that in their tent by the lake?” , indignantly Rachid Belhamri, responsible for the association La Piraterie, also signatory of the text.
People just need a little rest, warmth and hygiene. The rooms and vacant accommodations exist, they must be opened.
An insufficient current system
In the absence of new accommodation places, what about existing solutions? Loïc, who sleeps in the streets of Bordeaux, refuses to call 115. “It’s complicated with animals. And then in a hostel, I’m going to be asked to come home at such and such a time… It’s not possible”, continues the thirty-something, who never leaves his two dogs.
For associations, the existing system is not suited to the different profiles of those who find themselves on the street. “The places available are mainly for single people, indicates Bernie Calatayud, activist and founder of the Bienvenue collective, an association that helps refugees.
Our main problem concerns families with children, they have very few places. Likewise, a couple who want to stay together will not be able to. Most often, the man is taken care of in a structure for the men, the woman will go to another.
Beyond the situation of the homeless in exiles, there are many who cannot benefit from emergency accommodation. “If we look even among French people who are on the street, those who have addiction problems, or who are on the margins of society, we do not take them”, bemoans Bernie Calatayud.
The activist says she finds “normal” that rules be imposed in these communities, but regrets that “nothing is put in place for these people”.
“We will have to house them, otherwise there will be deaths”
“We need reception areas adapted for each public, with a reception day and night. This would allow families with children not to find themselves in overcrowded squats with drug addicts or under the influence of the alcohol”, she continues.
And to compensate for the lack of available places, it calls for the requisition of empty housing. “We are told that there are 22,000 in Bordeaux. We can see that the various plans are not working.
Why not requisition them to shelter people in very cold weather? We will have to house them, otherwise there will be deaths “
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