Paris (AFP)
The president of the Ile-de-France region Valérie Pécresse announces wanting to set up "solidarity houses" to "shelter the homeless of the metro" Paris, in an interview published Tuesday in the newspaper 20minutes.fr.
"There are today between 200 and 350 people depending on the seasons living on the metro, sometimes for years," said Ms Pécresse, who said that in return for this device, "it will no longer be possible to sleep in the transport network ".
"I wish to create, before the winter, human-friendly solidarity houses, which are places to welcome in Paris for long stays, day and night, for people in a situation of great exclusion, with adapted answers", explains the president of the transport authority Ile-de-France Mobilités.
"I want a lasting cure with places (...) for the long term, with social, medical, psychological and insertion follow-up, some of whom may even stay for several years," she says, with partnerships with Sainte-Anne Hospital for psychiatric diseases or AP-HP for detoxification.
"There will also be a singular care for women with children," she says, noting having worked with the mayor of Paris, the regional prefecture and associations to identify possible sites.
"At this stage, a house could open in the XIIIth, in a former high school, property of the Region", continues Mrs. Pécresse, which evokes others "in the XVIIth, the 5th and the 1st district, in the premises of the town hall, which will disappear in 2020 ".
For her, "these invisible subways are a source of system malfunction: when a driver must avoid an addict on the way or when an agent must clean up unspeakable things."
It also emphasizes that "these solidarity houses will not be accessible to irregular migrants".
The cost of the device will be "40 euros per day per person and several million euros for the development of premises," she said.
The region is conducting a study on "SDF du métro", which "are in a dozen stations". "They are often people with pathologies, addictions and older than the average of those who live on the street", but also "people who have lived in Paris for decades".
There is also a "growing population of women, sometimes with children". And "young family breakdown, which require immediate care", she analyzes.
Currently the RATP has a marauding service, the Social Compendium, which is trying to get the homeless out of the metro. This service is composed of volunteers who can send the homeless to the day care center opened by the RATP in Charenton-le-Pont. But this center "will close", according to Ms. Pécresse.
"It was time for Valérie Pécresse to wake up," responded the group Alternative ecologist and social, recalling that in arriving at the head of the Region, she "had suppressed all the aid to the Centers of reception and lodging for the homeless people (12 million?) as well as for refugee accommodation (2M?) ".
"Pécresse finally seems to be aware of the urgency to act for the accommodation of the homeless", adds the Left Front for whom "the invisible, homeless or migrants, must not be opposed and all must benefit from solidarity elementary."
Aurélien Legrand, for the RN, has denounced on Twitter a "mandate of the com .... It is always very nice, while we sit today at the Regional Council, to learn the measures that we are going vote by the press ".
? 2019 AFP