To maintain the same number of places as in the normal summer period, three reception facilities are exceptionally open in Lausanne.
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At L’Étape, the emergency aid offices will not close this summer.
PATRICK MARTIN
Both L’Étape and Respite are emergency accommodation in Lausanne, normally open during the winter only (from November to April). Given the particular situation of this year, caused by the health crisis, extensions to Respite have been fitted out, resulting in a total of 212 beds available. An extension of the opening of the Etape and Respite was also decided in this context.
The Respite has therefore postponed its closure scheduled for April to May 31. As for the Etape, it first postponed its closure until the end of July. And on July 2, the Social Assistance of the City of Lausanne reached an agreement with the Canton of Vaud, which granted the budget to further extend the opening of this structure until the winter resumption. Thus between the Marmotte, the Sleep-In (two structures open all year round) and the Etape, 90 beds will be available until the end of October.
Make up for the smaller number of beds
Eliane Belser, head of the emergency social assistance system, explains the reasons behind this decision: “With the distance rules, the Sleep-In and the Marmotte could offer 46 places instead of the usual 57. We therefore needed a third structure to ensure a number of places in any case equal to the normal summer situation. and to have rooms allowing confinement if necessary. ” If the count is far from what the Sleep-in association hoped for, which has launched a petition with 212 signatories (associations and private individuals alike) so that the number of available beds is maintained at 212, it welcomes in its press release this decision. However, she specifies, as confirmed by Eliane Belser, that around twenty people are still refused each night at the doors of emergency accommodation.
–One of the rooms in the Abri l’Étape, located at Chemin des Épinettes 4, in Lausanne.
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