Monday March 02, the Abbé-Pierre Foundation awarded the “Golden Peaks”: a satirical ceremony which rewards the worst anti-homeless urban devices ! You know these peaks along display cases, grids, posts, or benches where you can’t stretch. Place Grangier, there are several large gray benches with armrests all along, impossible to lie on them. According to the City, the objective is absolutely not to exclude the homeless, but to caring for the comfort of the elderly.
“They do everything so that we don’t stay there,” a Dijon homeless man
On these benches in Place Grangier, a poster from the Abbé-Pierre Foundation: “Pic d’Or for the worst anti-SDF devices“. An installation far from being unanimous among Dijon residents : “the municipality does what is necessary to remove these people from the field of vision, do not put them where it stains. While it is a reality.”
In a side street, on the ground, Alexis dressed in black, begging. He has the impression that we want make it disappear from the city center : “before there were very few in Dijon. Now there are more and more, even in front of stores, they put things to prevent people from sitting down. They do everything to keep people away. ”
For Alexis, this only displaces the problem: “anyway when you’re on the street, you have no choice. We will go elsewhere: in a building hall, where we will be less visible. This is where we are least disturbed.“
The objective is absolutely not to exclude the homeless, explains the City of Dijon
We contacted Dominique Martin-Gendre, deputy mayor, delegate for urban equipment and works, traffic and politics of the age of the town hall of Dijon.
According to the assistant, “the objective is absolutely not to exclude the homeless from the center.” Dijon is classified “Friendly City of the Elders” by the World Health Organization. These benches meet a request of the elderly : these armrests are there to help them get up. In front of the Museum of Fine Arts, on the stone benches there are metal bars: it would be to prevent skaters from damaging them, always according to the City. For the rest: grids in front of companies depend on the private sector.
– Sophie German
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