When inaugurating 50 new reception places for isolated mothers with children under three years old, this Monday morning in Villeurbanne at the Decomberousse reception centre, Bruno Bernard took great care to put his summer decision to stop supporting these populations. While assuming the more restrictive criteria introduced at the beginning of September, when the Metro reversed its decision.
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Starting with the essentials “link between the applicant and the metropolitan territory”on which it must be “domiciled”as specified in an internal memo. “A person who has had a request for accommodation outside the Metropolis rejected must be taken care of by the department concerned”.
“We need a realistic policy”
As for how to establish the correct domicile of a mother who is homeless by nature, that will be up to social workers. “This will be done during a social evaluation that we no longer put in place,” says Lucie Vacher, vice-president of social action. Families seeking asylum will be referred to the State and the French Office of Immigration and Integration (OFll). “We helped out with hotel rooms, but we told the State that we would stop in 2025”. But despite these restrictions, the Metropolis “will continue to take his share”. Two other sites intended to accommodate single mothers with children under 3 years old are in the pipeline in the Lyon metropolitan area, which has opened nine sites and 423 places since 2020, for a budget of €11.3 million in 2024.
The Metropolis returns the ball to the State
Despite the State’s failings, as the President of the Metropolis was pleased to point out. The Bobst site had been used to accommodate administrative services for the reception of Ukrainian refugees. “He was offered emergency accommodation to the State, which he did not wish to do. He has chosen not to create additional places on these devices which are emergency devices. But the fund is not the emergency: we need a realistic policy, so that these women can have papers, housing, a job. Because what is the meaning of public action to support children until they are three years old, and then stop without a solution, when we know that they will remain on our territory and will be regularized in 5 or ten years? ? »
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The 50 spaces inaugurated on rue Decomberousse were set up in the former premises of the Bobst factory, bought by the Métropole de Lyon a few years ago. These offices were created in partnership with Habitat et Humanisme and the City of Villeurbanne, with the support of Entreprise des Possibles. 92 places are about to open for one year in a premises of the Ramsay group, opposite the town hall of the 8th arrondissement.
État. As for the prefecture, we highlight an increase in resources: “in 2019, the budget devoted to accommodation amounted to €67 million, or +57% in 5 years. In 2019, the Rhône had 18,000 accommodation and adapted housing places financed every day. In 2024, it stands at 24,000.” And remember that the State also replaces the Metro. “From January 2021 to July 2024, 1,260 people from the Metropolitan area were admitted to the State system. As of June 30, 268 were still in a state-funded system.”
