the essential Escale Confluences, which takes care of the most vulnerable audiences, fears for its survival. Stopping the €60,000 municipal subsidy, plus energy bills, could be fatal to the association. A call for donations and volunteers is launched.
At Escale Confluences, an association specializing in the care of people in great precariousness, concern is mounting about the sustainability of the social actions carried out for more than 20 years in the uvale city.
Today, between €200 and €300,000 is missing, out of a budget of more than one million euros, to complete 2023 and thus avoid “the cessation of payments”, a specter so dreaded by the management of the collective which employs 22 employees. Last year, Escale Confluences recorded 17,999 passages on the various systems it manages in town for 76 official places.
We are thus talking about 31 places at the Sarlac emergency accommodation center (which rises to 36 in winter), 21 places for stabilization in housing with a view to reintegration and as many for emergency accommodation for asylum seekers. To this must be added day reception, postal domiciliation and the dense work of social mediation carried out in particular thanks to partnerships with the departmental council, the Abbé-Pierre foundation or even La Poste. 55% of the people received are beneficiaries of the RSA.
“A very sensitive public”
“If no one sleeps outside in Moissac, it’s thanks to Ecale Confluences. We almost have the role of an accommodation center, without however having the approval. Maintenance and access to rights, health problems, addiction, difficulties of access to rights or languages: we receive a very sensitive public that few people want to welcome. But it is a sovereign obligation to shelter anyone in distress and this, unconditionally”, underline Marie -Hélène Tissières, president, Adeline Delagrange, director, and Séverine Laurent, secretary of this association better known under the previous name of Moissac Solidarités. And who can rely “on a solid network of partners”, which goes from the Departmental Directorate for Employment, Labor, Solidarity and Population Protection (DDETSPP) through the Region, the Department, the Regional Health Agency (ARS), city policy, the savings bank or even the L’Oréal fund. Without forgetting Emmaüs, L’OccItalien, Epices 82 or health professionals, market gardeners or the company Mourgues Fruits, in particular.
End of municipal subsidies
All of this could therefore be called into question if Escale Confluences fails to raise the necessary funds. This financial hole, the board of directors attributes it to two elements: the €125,000 in annual rental charges and the €45,000 in energy costs that must now be paid to the town hall, which has been making the premises of the road available for years. du Vignoble and rue Figueris. And for years, no municipality had claimed reimbursement for the water and electricity consumed in these premises. Until the arrival of Romain Lopez. Mayor RN has also chosen to stop all municipal subsidies, for an annual amount of €60,000 (read below).
Today, the “building stock” enjoyed by the association as a tenant, sometimes unofficial as at the Chemin du Vignoble day center, is “dilapidated and poorly maintained”. “In the center of Sarlac, we have 4 apartments with a single dining room planned for 9 while we welcome 31 people. And in addition, we invite them to stay inside so as not to add delinquency to delinquency in this priority district of the city. Here, at the day reception, we are sorely lacking in space and we need to do some work. But we are not official tenants of the town hall so as such, we cannot intervene, even at our expense. We have asked several times to regularize this situation but without response from them. We are stuck…”, explain the three professionals.
For them, “the only solution” is to stimulate a real estate project that would catalyze all the services and devices provided by Escale Confluences. But it’s still the same problem: the finances are bloodless and the association has already had to put an end to the integration projects which mobilized 8 employees last year. So she appeals to the public authorities but also to patrons, individuals and professionals*, or any volunteer at ease with DIY work, in particular.
“We need the town hall but it sees us only as the association of Bulgarians, slips the director. I also think that the other cities do not understand the consequences of a closure of our services. It is potentially more than 300 people who will find themselves on the street and who will sleep outside in Moissac, Montauban or Valence. So everyone has something to gain.”
Anyone wishing to help Escale Confluences can contact 07 67 49 04 69 or [email protected]
Romain Lopez very quickly took the time to answer our questions. But unsurprisingly, the mayor of Moissac seems to think that the action of Escale Confluences is limited to its work with non-French speakers. “Paying a subsidy for linguistic mediation with regard to the Roma in Bulgaria is not part of our municipal policy. Indeed, such a policy does not allow the integration of populations and reinforces communitarianism. My ancestors from Spain , and many other ancient waves of immigration managed on their own, they had no association or mediation, but integrated and then assimilated The more money spent to assist foreigners, the less they s “integrate and the more they lock themselves in their communities. Note: the association receives more than a million grants per year… However, we have chosen not to apply rent to it on the premises at Chemin du Vignoble” , explains the mayor.
For the arrears of energy bills, it takes refuge behind the occupation agreement voted in 2010 which in fact provides for the regulation of the consumption of fluids. According to him, if no municipality has ever claimed its due, it is probably through “negligence of services”.
Works blocked by the town hall
With regard to the terms of occupation of the premises of the day reception, chemin du Vignoble, and the impossibility for Escale Confluences to carry out work which is clearly essential, Romain Lopez assumes his choice. “The socialist municipality of Mr. Nunzi has chosen to establish an agreement temporarily authorizing the occupation of the premises of the Figueris and the Vineyards. For the Figueris, this agreement lasts thirty years, therefore valid until 2040. For the Vineyard , we have redone an agreement to update the real occupation of the premises, the association is gradually extending to the other buildings on the site. It is tacitly renewable each year. The former director had asked me to set up a lease so that they can apply for a call for projects from the State for work on reception. I had given him an unfavorable answer because I consider that the model agreement drawn up by Mr. Nunzi is sufficient. “
On his policy in terms of social action, the mayor specifies that the employee assigned to the municipal social action center (CCAS) was able to resume his post after a semester of absence. This has generated “perhaps a lack of link between the CCAS and the Maison des solidarités”. Romain Lopez recalls at the same time that a Maison France Services has been set up in Sarlac, a priority district of the city. A crèche “with a vocation for social integration” will also open its doors with 20 places in the same district. “In addition, we are working with the Rural Families association and the sub-prefect for the reopening of a social center in the heart of our municipal building which will house the crèche and the early childhood space at the start of the school year. We intend carry out specific actions for single-parent families overrepresented in our territory.”
Mayor Romain Lopez assumes his choices
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