9 years of hearing mice scratching walls, seeing cockroaches crawling in the bathroom and breathing the polluted air of the Paris ring road.
Like many inhabitants of the “Python” city on the border of the twentieth arrondissement of Paris, Faïma Deneche loses hope of being relocated but continues to fight.
Since 2011, this tenant of the most "rotten" residential towers in the capital, alert on living conditions in the city.
And if on February 2, the Council of Paris validated the start of a complete reconfiguration of the HLM ensemble spread out until 2026, it is calling for a departure from 2021.
"My window overlooks the ring road, my son has asthma and my husband has breathing problems," explains Faïma.
"We can no longer live here, moreover, there is no life here", she concludes desperate by a situation that many families share in her building.
Because to the pollution with fine particles is added the humidity which deteriorates the walls, the mice which still circulate despite the rat attacks, but especially the bedbugs which bite his son Ilian all over his body.
"It's endless, we can clean up, open the window, treat the rooms with product, wash all the clothes at 60 degrees," says Céline Yegen, neighbor of Faïma.
They come back every time ”.
According to the project validated by the Paris Council, 306 out of 628 housing units will be demolished from April, at a cost of 17.6 million euros.
The building bars installed on the edge of the ring road will disappear first.
"We are still waiting for a rehousing proposal," protests Betty Tenne, at the initiative of the "Python-Duvernois en action" collective which is fighting to improve living conditions in the city.
"It's dangerous for my daughter to stay here, I don't want her to breathe the periphery until she is 20".
Betty's building opens directly onto one of the busiest interchanges in Europe, right next to Porte de Bagnolet.
According to the Town Hall, 550 families of “Python” are awaiting relocation.
At the rate of nine per month, some will have to wait nearly six years.
While the first rehabilitation discussions began in 2008, the end of the work is scheduled for 2028. "It is sad that the French live in these conditions," Faïma sums up.
We pay our rent, we work during confinement.
We deserve better.
"