On Friday, October 28, the government backtracked and eventually gave up on eliminating emergency housing places for homeless people in 2023. In the department, 142 additional places are due to open “gradually” this winter, starting November 1.
Following a mobilization of the left, ecologists and associations, the government eventually he gave up eliminate 14,000 emergency shelters in 2022 and 2023, in France. A week ago, 11 mayors, including Pierre Hurmic, challenged the Prime Minister, Élisabeth Borne, via an open letter. They raised “an increasing number of requests for emergency housing and an unprecedented increase in situations of great precariousness”.
4,000 places in the Gironde
In Gironde, the prefecture reports that “December 31, the target is set at 1,984 accommodation places, or an effort to reduce by 38 places compared to the end of 2021”. The closure therefore concerned “20 hotel places and the other 18 hotel places were transformed into rental brokerage places under the principle of living first”.
The prefecture announces the “gradual” opening of a further 142 emergency beds, adding that “the gyms can also be equipped to accommodate families in situations of vulnerability”. In total, nearly 4,000 emergency shelters are funded by the state, “permanently”, in the department for a budget of 51 million euros.
“Principle of unconditional acceptance”
In Bordeaux, associations, including those of solidarity marauders on strike indefinitely since 10 October, are asking for the opening of 1,000 adapted shelters in the metropolis. In his first press releasepublished on 31 October, the Girondin Observatory for evictions from squats and slums called for the “reopening of emergency housing” and the “refurbishment of existing ones”, as well as support for a “principle of unconditional reception in emergency housing” ‘.
Faced with overnight stays in hotels and temporary removals, the Observatory is fighting for the requisition of empty buildings and for the signing of precarious agreements.
