Brand new bathrooms, furnished bedrooms, shared kitchens for residents… And a load of strollers at the entrance. This Monday, October 7, the Métropole de Lyon presented a new reception center for “its public”, single mothers with children under three years old, in Villeurbanne.
In the Soie district, the “Decomberousse reception center” has been offering temporary accommodation for 14 single-parent families since June. In total: 50 people (women and children) are welcomed in a space of almost 1000 m2.
In front of around thirty people, the president of Habitat et Humanisme, Franck Chalvin, in charge of the premises, then the president of the Métropole de Lyon, Bruno Bernard (EELV), welcomed a welcome given in a “very good conditions. “Fortunately, Lyon and Villeurbanne are doing their part with this type of project. Elsewhere, it’s sometimes more complicated, even if we get there,” grumbles the president.
For those who defend a “Hospitable Metropolis”, it is a question of recalling the action of the community, criticized in recent times. Since 2020, this is the ninth site opened by the community which has created 423 additional accommodation places. “Our goal is to gradually reduce hotel pick-up,” he adds.
In Lyon, places for single mothers in a period of high tensions
In his wake, the boss of the Metro announces that two new sites will be opened. The first, “les Iris”, must accommodate 92 people. Another site should be announced soon… “We are in a constant search to find this type of place,” notes Lucie Vacher (EELV), deputy at the Métropole de Lyon in charge of social and educational action.
An attempt at clarification while the executive is heckled on its left on the issue of homelessness. A few days after the expulsion from the Guillotière municipal space, a round table in the presence of Renaud Payre (united left – Common Voice) was disrupted by housing rights activists on Friday October 4.
In particular: the criteria for welcoming single mothers with children under three years old, falling within its jurisdiction. In an internal note, these have been reinforced (or even hardened) as we revealed recently.
“We regularly make proposals to the State”
This Monday, Bruno Bernard’s goal was to put the church back in the heart of the village: the Metropolis is doing its part, unlike others. “This building had been loaned to the State to accommodate Ukrainian refugees,” he recalls. We then offered to make him available to provide emergency accommodation. It didn’t work,” he says. Before adding: “We regularly make proposals to the State [pour lui mettre du bâti à disposition, ndlr]. »
The Metro’s message does not change: we take care of the public within our competence, nothing but our competence. As is often the case, the community points out that it is the only one with departmental skills to take care of these populations. Basically, the only one to really enforce the law.
Between 2019 and today, the cost of housing single mothers in the Metropolis has increased from 900,000 to 11.3 million euros.
