Gradually, bags and furniture accumulate in front of the lowered curtain of the former Destination Famille premises, while the last occupants wait to find out where they will be accommodated. This Tuesday morning shortly after 9 a.m., the City of Marseille evacuated the residents of 43, rue d’Aubagne, located barely 100 meters below the collapsed buildings. As a final point in the setbacks of the building which housed the emblematic solidarity association on the ground floor until spring 2023 and which had been hit by successive security orders since February 2, 2023, before ‘be pre-empted last October.
In total, seven families of tenants were immediately rehoused by the municipality, while the prefecture covered the hotel nights of around ten people who occupied the premises without rights or title. “ We were told last week that we had to leave today to move into accommodation, but we haven’t seen it yet », Testifies one of the evacuees, seated at the neighboring bakery with a mint tea. A relief for the septuagenarian, after a year and a half of hardship. Without a solution after selling her home, she found accommodation there with her daughter, who stopped working to take care of her, with an acquaintance. But she discovers an apartment infested with bedbugs, and has to pay rent in cash varying, depending on the month, from 400 to 500 euros. Around them, the housing is occupied by squats, some of whose occupants have to pay rent. to a slumlord “. A report was made to the public prosecutor’s office, City services explained on site. As for the one who accommodates the septuagenarian and her daughter, himself a tenant, “ he suddenly let go of us », sighs the retiree.
Rehabilitation in sight
« It is an old furnished hotel which has changed its destination », Describes the housing director of the City of Marseille, Florent Houdmont. If the municipality owned the premises on the ground floor occupied by Destination Familles, the upper floors belonged to a single owner. But while the City services prescribed initial work in February 2023 in response to the water damage which threatened certain floors and some facade elements, “ the owner who has the majority and can block has not been very active », deplores Florent Houdmont. Some leaks are repaired in the bathrooms, not enough, particularly for the ground floor association, which alerts in the spring with a right of withdrawal. So, in October, a new order was issued, then in December in the face of the worsening situation, with a ban on occupying two homes. It was only last summer, while the municipality was preparing official work, that the owner suddenly decided to put his homes up for sale. Properties pre-empted on October 15 by the City for 300,000 euros, according to the estimate of Domaines de France, below the sale price. But while work is being prepared to restore the building, new water damage occurs, after a washing machine leak. which further weakens the supporting elements of the floors “. One incident too many, which prompts evacuation.
With the building now emptied, the municipality hopes to launch the first improvement works before Christmas. A first step before searching for a buyer likely to create social housing there. “ By summer, we will have defined the project », assures Florent Houdmont. Before a long construction site, to finally rehabilitate the building.
