"Already in normal times, it is very hard but there, with the confinement it is, the sleeve, zero, therefore, eat, zero", testifies on Twitter a man of 60, who spends his nights on the Parisian sidewalk while waiting to finally obtain accommodation.
Like him, thousands of homeless people in Ile-de-France, but also the new poor of the Covid, dial 115 every day to hope to join the Samu social and get a place for the night.
Already in normal times it's very hard, but there, public holiday, confinement ... Result, round 0. So eat 0.
If you go to Furstenberg, think of me ... ☺️
- Confined outside ... (@ MarcPoint2) November 11, 2020
"The response rate is not satisfactory", recognizes Christine Laconde, general manager of Samu social in Paris, who explains: "Behind, it is a lack of human resources but also of outlets to welcome these people".
On average each day, its teams take “1000 to 1300 calls”.
And each evening, around 800 emergency accommodation requests go unfulfilled.
Nothing in Paris.
The Winter Plan, which makes it possible each year to unlock additional accommodation places has in fact never stopped since the end of 2019. With the first confinement and the soaring of a new precariousness, this year Covid is exploding the counters.
Requests that have more than doubled
"We have never seen that," notes Vincent Hubert, director of the SIAO (reception and orientation service) of Val-d'Oise which manages the 115 for this department.
“At the same time of 2019, we had 1,300 hotel rooms for emergency accommodation.
For this month of November, we are at 2,900 rooms.
»Or an explosion of + 120%!
It should be noted that Val-d'Oise, well endowed with hotel capacity, also welcomes homeless people from Paris and the inner suburbs.
“For the moment, we manage to manage thanks to the additional financial resources released by the State.
But this hotel pick-up is not ideal for accompanying these people.
Places in accommodation centers are very limited, 545 exactly for Val-d'Oise ”.
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"9,000 additional places including 1,400 places in Ile-de-France have been created over the last three weeks to absorb these ever-increasing numbers of men and women due to extreme poverty reinforced by the economic consequences of the pandemic", explained this Monday Emmanuelle Wargon, Minister Delegate in charge of Housing, visiting Bonneuil (Val-de-Marne).
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In this department, 70 centers accommodate 2000 people per year, sometimes for two years, or as part of reintegration, the most vulnerable populations.
There, they are accompanied by social workers to start regularization procedures and find a job.
Before you can then find accommodation and exit the circuit.
What is missing are places
All the associations say it: this year, the problem is not the question of financing, even if they "hope that the announced credits will arrive well".
What is lacking are the premises faced with the influx of requests.
Samu social is working hard to find solutions and keep more people safe as temperatures drop.
The situation is so tense that this mid-November, the associations themselves are having a hard time making their accounts on the exact availability in each department.
“The dimensions have become enormous,” continues Christine Laconde.
At the Samu social in Paris, we have a dedicated service to prospect hoteliers and find rooms to rent for all the Samu sociale in Ile-de-France (except Hauts-de-Seine and Val-de-France). Marne which have their own system).
And we have gone from 38,000 overnight stays per day before the first confinement, to more than 45,000 currently.
And even 53,545 on October 26, according to figures from the regional prefecture.
More than half of the people staying at the hotel are children
Cost of these rentals: at an average of 21 euros per room, the bill exceeds one million euros every day.
More expensive than accommodation… “And half of those who are at the hotel have lived there for more than two years!
»Christine Laconde indignantly.
More than half of the people staying at the hotel are children, more than 40% of this public must renew their care every day, according to a study by Secours Catholique.
"This ballot from hotel to hotel, sometimes miles away, has consequences for the integration of families: how then to find a stable job?
And educate the children?
»Asks the association.
Same phenomenon in Seine-Saint-Denis.
“Despite the State's desire to find places, we are going to run out of them”, indicates Gérard Barbier, president of the Interlogement 93 association and which records “every evening more than 400 unfilled requests”.
It is therefore the race for available places.
So when the Emmaüs solidaire association was contacted by the owner of the Avenir Montmartre hotel in Paris (18th century), it was impossible to refuse this opportunity.
"He suggested that we make his establishment available for a period of one year," explains Bruno Morel, Managing Director.
In 48 hours, everything was ready, he welcomes.
Each bedroom has its own individual sanitary facilities.
60 people are already welcomed, there will be 85 by the end of the week.
We still have a dozen projects of this kind because this year is special, the challenge is to find a building, all associations are mobilized to find solutions.
"
Associations also lack qualified staff
“Faced with the health emergency and the need to protect the most vulnerable, the State has in particular kept open 5,000 places mobilized under the previous winter plan.
They are added to the 120,000 open the rest of the year, ”says the regional prefecture.
In total, nearly 130,000 places are reserved each night for the homeless in Ile-de-France.
Beyond the premises, the associations also lack "arms, in the social sense".
Qualified personnel to work for the social integration of these families.
But again, difficult to find in Ile-de-France given the salary levels of the profession and the cost of ... rents.
"The issue of leaving accommodation will be much more difficult than last year"
“Behind all of this, there needs to be a vast home integration plan mobilizing all stakeholders, insists Christine Laconde.
Access to housing is such an obstacle course in Ile-de-France that currently, there is no outlet and we are almost obliged to create a new place for each new request.
"
And if the end of the confinement is impatiently awaited by the majority of the population, it rather worries the associations: “With the crisis, the hotels are empty.
We found 7,500 places in six months.
But when the economy recovers, we will no longer have these rooms.
The issue of leaving accommodation will be much more difficult than last year.
We will have to find a solution for these thousands of people!
"