Will the winter break be extended? Faced with the threat of the coronavirus, the Federation of Solidarity Actors asked the government on Monday to act in this direction, in order to limit the risks of contagion among the homeless.
The federation of more than 800 associations helping the most disadvantaged, including the Abbé Pierre and Emmaüs Foundation, thus sent a letter - not public - to the Minister of Housing, Julien Denormandie, demanding the maintenance of more than 11,000 places winter accommodation after March 31. Each year, the beginning of spring marks the end of the ban on rental evictions and the closure of additional places in emergency accommodation centers set up, according to Alur law, during cold periods.
"It is a measure that we demand every year. But this year, it seems even more essential to us, ”said Parisian Florent Gueguen, director of the Federation of Solidarity Actors. “We would not understand that thousands of particularly vulnerable people find themselves on the street in the spring, with the health crisis that we are going through. It would be catastrophic. "
No mask, no medical staff
The observation will not surprise anyone: “Public places are fertile breeding grounds for viruses. By frequenting fragile people and staying outside most of the time, homeless people are obviously more likely to contract a virus, ”said Parisian doctor Faïza Bossy. "Not to mention that their organism is generally weakened in normal times".
The associations then ask to extend the measures taken for elderly people in nursing homes to accommodation structures. Housing Minister Julien Denormandie is scheduled to meet with associations on this subject on Friday. "After that, if we don't get any progress, we will raise our voice," warns Florent Gueguen. Contacted by Le Parisien, the minister's office ensures for its part "currently working to anticipate stage 3" in coordination with associations and prefectures.
For now, the Directorate General of Social Cohesion (DGCS) has already given directions to shelters to prevent the spread of the coronavirus. “Hard to apply” recommendations, deplores Florent Gueguen. Beyond the lack of places, most centers do not provide masks and do not have medical staff.
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"Some cases in Ile-de-France"
“There are no nurses or doctors on site. Likewise, the homeless have very little access to water points and most do not have individual rooms in the event of confinement. How do you manage when you have up to 400 beds in the same dormitory, like in the center of the Bakery, in the 18th arrondissement of Paris? "Regrets the president of the federation. And to sum up, bitter: “The health crisis is revealing of the shortcomings of the accommodation policy in France. "
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The measures are therefore "urgent", especially since they would protect both the homeless and all the employees and volunteers of these structures. Above all, "a few cases" of coronavirus have already tested positive in homeless people "in the Paris region", indicates Florent Gueguen, without wanting to say more, "not wishing to stigmatize a center". “In the case of contamination, it is the D system that prevails. "
If the situation is already worrying, it could be complicated in particular in the case of a transition to stage 3. As a reminder, this stage corresponds to the moment when the virus is actively circulating throughout the territory. It lasts in theory from 8 to 12 weeks, the time for the epidemic to reach a peak, then to decrease.
"Loosening sites" in the event of contamination
"Given the congestion of the Samu social at present, access to care will be even more complicated if the virus progresses," said Faïza Bossy. “And logic dictates that we treat the elderly and children first and then take care of adults. "
In the case of stage 3, the government could also extend the restrictive measures and provide for a blocking of travel and activities. "But if we decide to extend containment measures like in Italy, how do we proceed? Asks the doctor, who also recalls that "promiscuity can be complicated to manage for people who are not used to it".
"The regions will have to make an effort to develop new places, free up gymnasiums ... Because we cannot, on the one hand, maintain quarantine and, on the other, abandon the most precarious," she concludes.
Wanting to be reassuring, the office of Julien Denormandie ensures that in the perspective of a stage 3, the prefects will "identify at least one site per region likely to accommodate homeless people diagnosed as affected by coronavirus but not relevant to 'hospitalization'. These “loosening” sites should “allow people in single rooms or confined areas to be isolated”.
Good news for associations, which hope, however, that "places open in winter will also be maintained". "Opening these sites is good for those who are contaminated, but people who are not should not go back to the streets and risk ... contamination," concludes Florent Gueguen.