Start of the winter break: in Nîmes and the Gard, the lack of emergency accommodation is already glaring

From this Friday 1^is November, the first day of the winter break, the Samu social, which is part of the Red Cross and manages emergency accommodation in particular, will carry out its marauding seven days a week, instead of five days a week, in the Gard. An additional employee is recruited, on a fixed-term, full-time basis, to strengthen the team, which increases from two to three employees until March 31, 2025. “Our climate is mild, concedes Malik Berkani, director of the Red Cross Anti-Exclusion Center (Plex). But we are already on alert to be able to make a more rapid assessment of the situations of people who are reported to us in the street, especially when it is cold. »
Requests for accommodation, particularly from people who live in their cars or outside, who are more sensitive to the cold, are starting to arrive. “This week we sheltered a family who lived in a garage in Nîmes.”

251 requests filled out of 2,419 requests

In September, 2,419 requests for emergency accommodation were recorded in the Gard department, “the vast majority of which are in Nîmes”, specifies Malik Berkani. That is 2,500 calls to 115, from where the Red Cross Integrated Reception and Orientation Service (SIAO) directs people to the street. “Of these 2,419 requests, 45% were fulfilled, giving rise to sheltering for 251 people.” Two possible accommodation solutions: either in night shelters managed by the SOS group, or in hotels approved by 115, in the event of saturation. However, 200 people were accommodated in hotels in September. “We always manage to shelter people in great difficulty, but there are still 55% of requests unfilled!”
Requests for emergency accommodation are increasing. “The budget for hotel nights, in 2018, when I arrived, it was €500,000. Today, it is 2.5 million euros.” 73% of unfilled requests are due to a lack of available space. “The winter break is undoubtedly good news,” confides Emmanuel Appy, departmental vice-president of the Red Cross. “But we never have enough accommodation for everyone.”
“And we will not be able to reverse the trend in the coming years,” warns Malik Berkani.
Samu social identified 93 people who were victims of violence, most of them within the family, in August (latest figure available), including 54 women and 15 children.

Deterioration of people's health

Many people are poorly housed in the department today. “This is the result of past crises. There are people evicted from their homes at the age of 70, others who live precariously, in campers. They don't always think to call 115.”
Since 2018, overall, people's health has deteriorated. “It requires a lot of collaboration with hospital services, for example. Five years ago, there wasn't that. More and more people are being taken care of with a medical component, dialysis to be done, etc. “We deployed mobile teams with doctors. Before, this only existed in big cities. The vulnerability of the people we support is getting worse.”
Emergency accommodation number, dial 115.

A Red Cross duvet operation in December

The Gard delegation of the French Red Cross will set up two days of duvet collection, from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m., Saturday December 7 and 14, in front of the Saint-Paul church, boulevard Victor-Hugo, in Nimes. “Why duvets? We didn't invent them, that's what people on the street ask us, explains Emmanuel Appy, departmental vice-president of the Red Cross delegation of Gard. The blanket slips, you can get bitten by it. A sleeping bag is more difficult.” The Red Cross contacted companies, including a famous clothing and sports accessory brand, to participate in the operation. People could get sleeping bags there for collection, unless they bring their own sleeping bag.“We are going to ask businesses and Nîmes metropolis to be a collection center for town halls.” An operation “gardo-gardoise” which would be a first. And perhaps also the opportunity to recruit volunteers.