She denounces an attack on the freedom to come and go in the public space. The League for Human Rights, residents and associations fighting against poor housing called on Tuesday for the suspension of an “anti-precarious” decree taken in mid-July by the LR town hall of Angoulême, during a a hearing before the administrative court of Poitiers.
The judge in chambers will render her decision on Monday before an appeal on the merits. In its decree published on July 11 regulating “the abusive occupation of public spaces”, the town hall of Angoulême prohibits “seated or lying down when it constitutes an obstacle to the circulation of pedestrians and to access to buildings bordering public roads”.
No “standing station” either “when it clearly hinders the movement of people, the convenience of passage, safety in public roads and spaces”. The LDH denounces “an attack on the freedom to come and go, to occupy the public domain as one wishes, all the more so in the case of people (whose) makeshift home is the street” , believes his counsel, Me Marion Ogier.
Because for the applicants, it is indeed “the marginalized” who are targeted by the text. “Nocturnal noise, public drunkenness, aggressive begging… all these offenses are already provided for in the Penal Code. And in the documents in the file, we are systematically told about security, but only the prefect is competent” in the matter, points out the lawyer, for whom the text has “just the purpose of getting rid of a population that society judges inconvenient”.
The City describes an “anxiogenic climate”
The deputy for prevention and public security of Angoulême, Jean-Philippe Pousset, assures that the text is not an “anti-begging” or “anti-homeless” decree. “It is only a tool to find a peaceful management of the public space”, which “concerns only 6% of the surface of the city”, he says.
The elected official points to “nearly 400 handrails” filed with the municipal police for three years and asserts the support of traders. The city’s lawyer, Me Alexandra Aderno, insisted on the “anxiogenic climate” and “the exponential increase in unrest” in the city center.
The Charente city had already experienced such controversy in 2014, when it had fenced public benches at Christmas. In addition to Angoulême, similar decrees have already been taken by several cities in France, including La Rochelle in June, often challenged by the courts as in Saint-Étienne or Bayonne in recent years.
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