What is the plan this winter to accommodate homeless people? The prefecture presented its winter monitoring plan for winter 2024/2025. There will be fewer places but the State is looking for lasting solutions.
For this winter, there are initially 2,465 accommodation places in the department which are available, including 1,768 for emergencies. This represents 35 places less than last year. These accommodations are not additional, they are largely already occupied permanently or by the night with calls made daily to 115. The authorities can create additional places in the event of a very cold winter.
In addition to accommodation, the plan provides for several measures: day receptions in Nancy, Longwy and Briey, marauding tours in Greater Nancy and the Pays Haut every day as well as night stops. All of these devices are likely to be reinforced in the event of a drop in temperatures. In Nancy, a social restaurant is open in the evening managed by the town hall. This should make it possible to identify people and gradually direct them towards ordinary housing thanks to the work of social workers.
The downside, accommodation
The prefecture recognizes it, the number of places is decreasing. State services closed several hotels which served as reception centers last year. They were considered unsanitary. This has not yet been compensated, recognizes the prefect of Meurthe-et-Moselle Françoise Souliman: ” we do not replenish that many places in one year. I wished we could reopen places like at the Sdis barracks in Tomblaine and work on the most definitive, that is to say premises, several centers of around sixty people“. Françoise Souliman is looking in Nancy where the needs are most pressing.
.State services estimate that around a hundred places are missing to meet the challenge. A third of accommodation requests are not met, particularly due to lack of space. For this winter system, we started it too late according to Monique Debay, CGT delegate to the Reception and social reintegration association: “the whole logistical aspect, arrangement of bungalows, it takes time, We can note a lack of anticipation“There are fewer places and social workers are increasingly difficult to find, explains Annie Tourolle, departmental director of employment, work and solidarity: “the winter plan is operational, additional places are being created. I'm not saying that we can recruit overnight, but recruitment can be done. It's a bit long, a bit difficult but it can be done.“Last winter, the extreme cold plan was only activated for a few days at the beginning of January in the department.
