Freezing temperatures, humidity problems and even squatters… The nuisances are piling up for the tenants of the residence located at 27 rue du Mazel in Gap. The Hautes-Alpes public housing office does not provide them with a satisfactory answer.
At Sandrine's, resident of 27 rue du Mazel in Gap (Hautes-Alpes), traces of mold blacken the ceiling here and there. “I had water that started dripping during the rains,” she says, pointing to the damage. And added: “We see on the corners that it is honeycombed.” Arriving here in 2017, this lady in her fifties is the oldest tenant of the Gapence residence.
She has been sounding the alarm for more than a year: exposed electrical cables, barely wrapped in newspaper, make her fear a fire breaking out at any moment and, above all, the humidity keeps the cold permanent in the cramped apartment.
“When I see all this water dripping through the ceiling, I wonder if there is not a danger that one day it will fall on the corner of my nose because it is waterlogged” , she worries.
Fears for their safety
Sandrine is not the only one to suffer from problems in the residence: five out of six tenants complain of nuisances. On the first floor, the cold forces David Beaume to stay in his coat at home. The thermostat constantly displays 15 degrees, and even 13°C at the height of winter.
“I’m angry because it’s not what I was promised,” he loses his temper. “The toaster heater heats poorly and I rarely turn it on because the bills are soaring. The windows are also poorly insulated, I can hear the bar downstairs all the time.” David wants to leave, but he is still waiting to be assigned a new apartment. One of the rooms is also filled with boxes, proof that he does not feel comfortable at home.
That's not all. The front door of the residence is never closed and homeless people take advantage of this to sleep in the stairwell, causing many inconveniences: abandoned shoes and sheets, smells of urine, beer cans, and even feces in the garden… The situation is such that residents fear for their safety.
Faced with this situation, David increased the number of alerts to the town hall, the prefecture, ADIL and even the ARS. With no response from the Hautes-Alpes Public Housing Office (OPH05), which manages the residence, he ended up taking the social landlord to court.
“The forgotten ones of the 27th”
Contacted by BFM DICI, the general director of OPH05, Christophe Aloisio, ensures that he will take charge of the matter.
“We want to change the electric convectors to switch to gas, which will reduce costs, but there is no company currently responding to calls for tenders,” says Christophe Aloisio.
Currently, David's apartment is classified G in the DPE (Energy Performance Diagnosis), which places it in the thermal sieve category. It will therefore be prohibited for relocation from January 1, 2025. In the meantime, David is even thinking of creating an association to prolong the fight with an ambiguous name: “the forgotten of the 27th”.
