A project to rehabilitate the working-class district of St Jacques in Perpignan is raising concerns and questions. A group wants to prevent the declaration of public utility that could facilitate the expropriations of owners. The town hall wants to be reassuring.
For 12 years, Philippe Deblauwe has been living on rue Lucia. A main artery in the emblematic Saint-Jacques district of Perpignan. A happy owner, he fears a rehabilitation project that could force him to leave.
“Our concern as residents is that we will find ourselves downgraded. If we are expropriated, we are very afraid that the compensation that we will be offered will not allow us to buy an equivalent property in the city centre of Perpignan.”worries Philippe Deblauwe.
Philippe’s apartment is actually one of the 106 homes to be transformed into social housing. This project challenges the St Jacques collective. It questions the choice of plots to be rehabilitated.
The argument put forward in the investigation file is that these are the most degraded islets of Saint-Jacques. This is completely false. There is one islet that is very degraded, of course, but for the others this is not the case.
Jean-Bernard Mathon, member of the St Jacques Collective
The rehabilitation project has a specific ambition, explains Jean-Yves Gatault, the elected official in charge of urban renovation at Perpignan town hall: “LThe idea is to open up this district by creating a space between the historic center, Place Rigaud and Place Cassanyes.”
The community already owns 70 of the 106 homes to be acquired. Negotiations are underway with residents to avoid expropriations. The deputy director general of Perpignan town hall services, Farid Belacel, wants to be reassuring: “L“Expropriation should be provided for the most complex cases, those where we cannot find the owners.”
Local residents can give their opinion on this project via the public inquiry which ends on July 5. The amount of the rehabilitation project for this part of the St Jacques district is 150 million euros.
