Montreuil opens a gymnasium for women alone and isolated at night

The city of Montreuil (Seine-Saint-Denis), denouncing the great lack of housing in Île-de-France, announced on Tuesday the provision of a gymnasium for women from Wednesday evening “living alone, on the street, broken up and deprived of accommodation”. This municipal gymnasium will be accessible only via an orientation by the emergency number 115, for a month and a half, until February. Homeless women will be welcomed there at night, from 6 p.m. to 10 a.m.

Already during the winter of 2023-2024, 33 women (including some pregnant) were cared for in this way by the town of 111,000 inhabitants, located around ten kilometers east of Paris. “The housing sector is caught in the grip of disinvestment from public policies and the financialization of the sector”writes in a press release the mayor (PCF) of Montreuil, Patrice Bessac, who chairs the territorial public establishment Est Ensemble.

“Too many cities still refuse to build housing”

“The State must further strengthen emergency accommodation capacities, help supportive communities, associations and landlords but also sanction communities which refuse national solidarity”affirms this communist councilor, deploring that “too many cities still refuse to build housing”.

This temporary night reception aims to supplement existing emergency accommodation places. Each woman will be able to benefit from access to sanitary facilities, a hygiene and shower kit, a bed equipped with blankets and duvets. “very cold”dinner and breakfast. Individual situations will be taken into account by social workers present all night, according to the town hall, while during the day, women will be collected in the day centers of Emmaüs Alternatives and Cité Caritas and referred for medical consultations in municipal health centers.

Doctors will also come to the gymnasium for specialist consultations and vaccinations. This is depending on the city “to prevent people in care from returning to the street at the end of the winter period”.