A mother and her four children live in an unsanitary apartment in the Jolimont district.
“I throw away whole pots of food.” While Donia, 41, describes her “ordeal”, large cockroaches roam the walls of her small apartment in the Jolimont district of Toulouse. These pests have ruined his life for over a year. She lives there with her children aged 5, 9, 10 and 13. In the midst of cockroaches swarming in every room.
“And still, it’s worse at night, says the mother, relocated for safety after having suffered the blows and death threats from her ex. They are everywhere, in the gas stove, the fridge, in the beds… ”
Shyly, her 10-year-old son admits: “When I feel like going to pee at night, I don’t go because I know the toilet will be full of cockroaches.”
“My girlfriend started screaming”
He continues: “Sometimes I feel a cockroach on my leg. It makes me jump to the heart ”. Her older sister is embarrassed. “Once, I brought in a friend. When she went to the kitchen and saw the cockroaches, she started screaming ”. The family is at an end. “Of course I reported the problem. They came three times with syringes, gel, smoke bombs, but that didn’t change anything. I have the impression of being abandoned by my landlord, continues Donia, opening each room of the apartment where the presence of cockroaches is obvious. It’s a nightmare. We don’t sleep anymore. I lost 15 kg, my 13 year old daughter also lost weight. It is unbearable. I have to swallow a lot of sleeping pills ”.
“We don’t receive anyone”
The confinement has only increased the “desperation” of the family who live with the cockroaches. “When we eat, we watch each other’s plates. You can’t leave food unattended otherwise they will arrive. My daughter almost swallowed it. We don’t receive anyone. We don’t celebrate birthdays. I have the impression of missing out on my children’s childhood ”.
Donia now aspires to move. “I want people to hear me at least for my children. I just want a clean apartment. I don’t think it’s too much to ask ”. Contacted, the lessor, Toulouse Métropole habitat, did not wish to speak, simply indicating that a procedure was underway.
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