• There are, in the metropolis of Montpellier, nearly a thousand people living in slums, according to the prefect, Hugues Moutouh.

    Between 800 and 900, according to associations, which count about a dozen camps.

  • The associations, committed to supporting these populations, highlight the integration of these families, most of whom have been present in Montpellier for many years.

    About half of the children in school were born in France, indicates Damien Nantes, the regional manager of Médecins du monde.

  • The prefect, engaged in a reduction of these camps, points out the unworthy living conditions of these people.

    The presence of an underground economy, and people known to the police.

    And not that frequent insertion.

The new prefect of Hérault, who took office this summer, has made no secret of his intentions to absorb the slums in the metropolis of Montpellier.

On September 8, Hugues Moutouh pointed to camps "organized like South American favelas", populated by people who "live on our doorstep in an unworthy manner".

“These shantytowns are growing over the years, deplored the prefect.

Many have experienced an increase in their surface areas and their inhabitants ”.

But how many people do they live in the metropolis, in these makeshift camps?

"Hundreds of people, not far from a thousand", according to the prefect.

Between 800 and 900, according to Damien Nantes, the regional coordinator of Médecins du monde in Languedoc-Roussillon.

A population spread over a dozen camps in the metropolis, mainly in the city center, in very precarious living conditions.

"The installation of shanty towns in Montpellier dates back, roughly, to 2004", confided Damien Nantes, on September 8.

And contrary to what the prefect deplores, "over the past ten years, the situation has not changed much, in terms of the number of people," noted the regional manager of the medical NGO.

"These are families who have settled for at least ten years"

Most (82%), according to Damien Nantes, are European citizens. Of which, mainly, Romanians, but also Italians. “Since 2013, these people have a right to settle and stay in France. Of the children in school between 6 and 16 years old, 50% were born in France. This gives an idea of ​​the stability of these families. We are not facing waves of people, who would have come in large numbers recently. These are families who have settled in Montpellier for at least ten years. »And,« in the majority of cases, on a regular basis ».

Among these inhabitants, there are families who work, and whose children go to school, and who, in the evening, return to the slum, indicates Catherine Vassaux, director of the Area association, which works in these camps.

“In the Mas Rouge slum, for example, 70% of households were professionally integrated,” she says.

A "reasonable timetable" for slum upgrading

For his part, the prefect of Hérault does not paint the same portrait of the occupants of these slums. After the dismantling of the Zenith camp on September 8, he pointed out a population "without any integration, neither economic, nor cultural, nor social". Of the 75 people present during the evacuation of the site, Hugues Moutouh had indicated, there were 18 minors, including "seven partially educated". And "11 adults declared having worked or still worked today". And, listing the legal disputes of nearly fifty inhabitants, the representative of the State had mentioned "a tendency to resort to a parallel economy" and "to the increase in criminal behavior". "These people have arrived in an often illegal situation, and settle illegally on the property of others", deplored Hugues Moutouh.

The prefect did not specify when he wanted to see the slums disappear.

In any case, it will be within a "reasonable timeframe", "not for ten years".

But the evacuations have already started: on August 31, the Mas Rouge camp, then, on September 8, that of the Zénith.

The State services justified these operations by the peril in which the inhabitants of these slums, theaters of regular fires live.

Dismantling which scandalized the associations, especially since work had been implemented for years with the inhabitants of the slums, to get them out of this ultra-precarious situation.

This device has enabled, according to the structures involved in this project, many families have found long-term housing and a job.

Montpellier

Montpellier: Two slums evacuated in eight days, associations are dismayed

Nantes

Nantes: About fifty slums and 600 Roma families in the metropolis

  • Languedoc-Roussillon

  • Slum

  • Montpellier

  • Society