The Municipality of Yverdon-les-Bains is closing Kipole with immediate effect. This structure dedicated to marginalized people has become unmanageable due to drug trafficking.
“In recent weeks, its activities have been seriously disrupted by the expansion of street dealing,” the Municipality acknowledged on Friday. The Kipole, located in the heart of Yverdon in the former kiosk on Place d’Armes, had been opened in May 2023 on an experimental basis.
It aimed to ensure “better social monitoring of people in marginalized situations”, recall the Yverdon authorities. To replace it, and as was the case before its opening, “local social workers will be deployed in the streets to reach out to people in precarious situations and come to their aid.”
Closed toilets
Access to the former kiosk on Place d’Armes, including its toilets, is now blocked. Only access to the toilets for people with reduced mobility (who have the appropriate key) is maintained, the Municipality specifies.
Still with a view to combating “the scourges of street dealing and drug addiction”, the spa town also indicates that it is strengthening security around Zone bleue, a reception structure dedicated to drug addicts. Without giving figures, it adds that it will deploy “the maximum possible force” of the North Vaudois police in the city centre.
Vaud petition
As tensions have been rising for several weeks, the Municipality is warning against “extremist and populist solutions” to street dealing. In particular, it would like to point out that “the use of force is a sovereign power that cannot be delegated to private or citizen militias.”
In the canton of Vaud, Yverdon, but also Lausanne and Vevey, are particularly affected by street dealing. The issue has often made headlines in the media, especially since the launch in mid-August of a “citizen’s petition” asking the Council of State to do more. Entitled “Street dealing, that’s enough! Zero tolerance!”, the text had gathered 1,730 signatures by Friday morning.
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