Around a hundred people are installed along the three-kilometer path in the heart of the forest, on the limits of Castres, Portets and Saint-Selve. Several caravans, a single water point, makeshift shelters and above all mountains of various waste: plastics, clothing, scrap metal, car wrecks… According to the municipality, the place serves as a dump for people outside the camp.
“They are human beings, there are children. Imagine when it rains, it's gloomy. So people close their eyes, they are far from the town, we don't see them. How can we consider ourselves a civilized society when we allow people to live in these conditions? » exclaims Gracia Perez, the mayor of Castres-Gironde.
Rubbish piles up alongside caravans and vehicles.
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Can the (in)fortune camp installed for at least thirty years on Chemin des Limites be described as a shantytown? This is the question on which the State and communities do not seem to find agreement. While some are looking for someone responsible, the mayor of Castres-Gironde says she is distraught. “The municipality cannot resolve this situation alone and the community of municipalities of Montesquieu wants to wash its hands of it,” assures the elected official, presenting the documents accumulated over the years.
30 children at school
Monia and Joseph Lafleur, 35 years old, two children, don't care about paperwork. They tirelessly wait for better days, “a place to live with dignity”. He was born in Chemin des Limites: “we just ask for running water, electricity and toilets. We can pay for a location, we do odd jobs. » “We're not asking for a palace,” adds his wife, who arrived almost twenty years ago. It carries the voice of the 12 families who live here. “For years, we have seen elected officials, the prefect, parade, but nothing happens,” laments the young woman.
“How can we consider ourselves a civilized society when we allow people to live in these conditions? »
Around thirty children who grow up there regularly attend the Castres school and the Saint-Selve college. “In the morning, the children take the bus to school, I take my son to the speech therapist. Like a normal life… except that we don’t have a location worthy of the name,” breathes a young woman.
In 2017, departmental, community and state elected officials worked together for what seemed to be the beginning of a solution. Six emergency housing units renamed “La belle Etape” were built on an adjoining plot of land. But the houses cannot accommodate all families and do not correspond to the habits of travelers. “It’s not our life,” says Monia.
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Six wooden houses were built by Emmaüs on the site in 2017.
Aware that the threat of eviction looms – the land belongs to a private owner – residents cling to the hope of creating public rental family land. These caravan pitches are equipped with a toilet block and individual meters for water and electricity. Tenants pay rent and utility bills.
The departmental plan for welcoming travelers 2019-2024 prescribes the construction of three family rental plots in the area: 10 places in Saint-Médard-d'Eyrans, 12 places in Portets and 20 places in Podensac.
Is the State responsible?
“We met several times on this subject with elected officials. It's a complex subject. The neighboring communities of communes, Montesquieu and Convergence Garonne, do not respect the requirements of the departmental plan. A piece of land had been identified in Portets, just next to Chemin des Limites, but the ground was not stable enough,” specifies the sub-prefect of Langon, Vincent Ferrier.
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The adjoining plot in Portets was once planned to create family land.
On the side of the community of communes of Montesquieu, President Bernard Fath judges that it is up to the State to eliminate this “slum” and ensure the rehousing of these inhabitants, under a circular of January 25, 2018. “There is no reason why what is done in Bordeaux should not be applied here,” he says in reference to the evacuation of the Brazza slum.
The state representative has another interpretation. “These people live in caravans, even if there can be a little “cabanization”, and it is a population from Travelers and not from the Roma populations as in Bordeaux. We are therefore well within the competence of welcoming travelers, communities of municipalities. These projects are subsidized by the Department and the State up to 60%.
The CdC Montesquieu purchased land in Cadaujac to create a reception area by 2027. On the Convergence Garonne side, there is a project in Podensac at the foot of the Béguey bridge, but a shanty town is also currently installed there. The possibility of family land in Preignac is also being studied.
