As the Paris 2024 Olympic Games approach, controversies are linked to housing in Île-de-France. After the requisition of certain student accommodation, the controversy concerns the transfer of homeless people to the regions, via “temporary regional reception areas”. Official objective: to unclog emergency accommodation centers in the Paris region, which have historically been overcrowded. But some associations – such as the Abbé Pierre Foundation – are surprised “of the concordance of the arrival of the Olympic Games and a program which aims to send migrants to the provinces”.

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” It has nothing to do “defuses the Ministry of Housing with the “Obs”. “This follows the growing tension of emergency accommodation which has notably taken place this winter”, specifies the office of Minister Olivier Klein. Of the 205,000 places available throughout France, half are in Île-de-France and many in hotels. “These accommodations must be temporary with a view to reintegration. Hotels are not suitable for this”adds the minister’s office.

To carry out these transfers, the government has decided to rely on a system used for asylum seekers since 2021: “temporary reception areas”. Ten in number according to the newspaper “20 minutes”, they are installed in the major metropolises in the regions (except Hauts-de-France and Corsica). These places must shelter the homeless in cohorts of fifty for three weeks, the time to find them permanent accommodation. Since mid-April, 170 people have joined its “airlock”, says the Ministry of Housing. And around 3,600 places should be occupied in the coming weeks, or around 3.5% of those available in Île-de-France. “The objective is to have effective support for the homeless, and not at all to hide the misery”corrects the ministry.

“We are not going to pick up the homeless in Paris! »

In principle, everyone agrees to praise the government’s intention. “Most associations are not opposed to the decongestion of the region”, confirms to “Obs” Manuel Domergue, director of studies of the Abbé Pierre Foundation. But the manner arouses expectation… and fear.

First, transfer on a voluntary basis. “These people must be informed and they must not be blackmailed between accepting the transfer or losing the right to be hosted”, explains Manuel Domergue. If the concern exists, it is because the associations have experience of transferring homeless people present in camps.

“When a camp is evicted by the police, people are put on buses and taken to places they don’t even know the name of. When 200 cops surround you, you do what they say. It’s not really what we call an informed and enlightened choice, ”describes Manuel Domergue.

With “Obs”, the Ministry of Housing assures that there will be no buses that will crisscross the capital to “pick up” homeless people. ” That’s not the spirit at all! », we protest. Olivier Klein’s office specifies that these departures are made with the help of associations, and specifically mentions the Abbé Pierre Foundation. “We participated in the discussions but we did not respond to the call for applications to participate”nuance the Foundation.

The challenge of long-term housing

Once the homeless have been transferred to the region, another concern emerges: that of their reintegration. Because without solutions behind the “airlocks”, the latter will in turn be quickly clogged. One solution is to create additional accommodation places. “When we send the homeless to Rennes or Strasbourg, these are areas that are already under high tension”, emphasizes Manuel Domergue. The latter reports a recent return from an “airlock” near the Breton city, where local homeless people were expelled from a hotel to make way for those arriving from Île-de-France.

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The director of studies of the Abbé Pierre Foundation is sorry: “This ‘loosening’ policy is the government’s magic wand, its miracle but illusory solution to the region’s housing problems. » Because if the ministry highlights the already record number of emergency accommodation places, this distribution is not sufficient to settle the question of the homeless. “I would like the government to give us a tap number on a better national distribution, but they are not even able to do it on a Parisian scale”laughs at the “Obs” Ian Brossat, Deputy Mayor of Paris in charge of Housing.

In addition, the “airlocks” are only intended to be a temporary reception. What next? The ministry assures that the homeless will then be placed in boarding houses [hébergement où les locataires louent une chambre]. When it comes to reintegration, that’s another problem. “If the homeless are sent to areas where there are no job prospects, integration is impossible”, emphasizes Ian Brossat. And the risk of a return to the starting point, in Paris, is real. Lacking guarantees and confused, some homeless people decided to return to Paris, as was the case for several who had been sent to an “airlock” in Toulouse, says the Abbé Pierre Foundation.

Short-circuited mayors?

Confused, the mayors of the municipalities that host the “airlocks” are too. Firstly for not having been concerted on the creation of the installations. During a contact with the Abbé Pierre Foundation, the ecologist mayor of Strasbourg, Jeanne Barseghian, said that she had been put up against the wall. “What was asked of the prefects is to do it in good understanding with the elected officials”yet assures the Ministry of Housing.

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Another complaint from the mayor – that of Bruz (18,000 inhabitants, near Rennes) – came to throw opprobrium on the government system. In an interview with “Ouest-France” on Tuesday, Philippe Salmon said to himself “confused” by the installation of an “airlock” on a vacant lot, adjoining a railway line and “polluted by hydrocarbons and heavy metals”. Reception conditions “unworthy”, on a space that is not ready for reception. Contacted, the Ille-et-Vilaine prefecture did not return our calls. For its part, the Ministry of Housing affirms to the “Obs” that the “airlocks” are installed on places where accommodation possibilities already exist.