Last October, when Jessica* opened the door to her new home in Petit-Quevilly (Seine-Maritime), her new life began.
“I felt a lot of emotion, relief, when I entered.
I was home.
I could finally breathe,” smiles the young mother, looking at her two-and-a-half-year-old daughter who fell asleep after returning from shopping.
This small furnished apartment is made available by the Rouen branch of the Toit à moi association, just long enough to get off to a good start.
Arriving from Gabon in 2019, Jessica had already lived another life, in the country of Bray, with family alongside the father of her daughter who died suddenly in 2022 of cardiac arrest.
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“Everything changed at that moment.
I had to leave my home because we weren't married.
From one day to the next, we found ourselves on the street.
At the time my little one was five months old.”
From home to hotel, housed for a time with a host family, they take refuge when they have no other solutions in the emergency corridors of the Rouen University Hospital to spend the night.
“I called 115. Sometimes there was a solution, but sometimes not.”
Months of hardship for Jessica, with the driving force behind not giving up, the desire to build a future for her daughter.
“We needed a place to live and settle down.
Without this starting point, it is impossible to move forward because we live day by day.
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It was at the Rouen association forum where she decided to go that the young woman discovered the Toit à moi stand.
“Originally, Toit à moi was created in Nantes around fifteen years ago with the same principle: acquiring housing to accommodate homeless people and supporting them towards independence,” summarizes Camille. Rousée, president of the Rouen branch (www.toitamoi.net) launched a little over a year ago.
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“Today, the association has already helped 158 people and has 62 apartments throughout France,” explains Camille Rousée.
In the city, two are already operational and crowdfunding, which ends in a few days, has been launched to acquire a third.
On average, those who benefit from it stay there for between two and three years, simply paying a small contribution when they can.
“It’s important that they have time to rebuild themselves, to start again on a good basis, without the stress of knowing that after six months they have to leave their place,” continues Camille Rousée, who insists on the importance of the social support provided by their employees and the role of volunteers to support each beneficiary.
“There is often a whole administrative aspect, access to rights for example, which needs to be worked on, as well as issues related to health.
And another linked to the socialization of each individual.
On the street, we tend to isolate ourselves and lose our bearings.
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A situation which obviously speaks to Jessica, happy to finally have an address which allowed her to enroll her daughter in daycare, which will give her time to train and then land a job.
“Before, I was often sad.
I cried when I was exhausted.
And, obviously, it also affected my daughter who saw me like that.
Today, she feels that I am doing better and she can see it too.
For me, that's the main thing.
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