Arzon, its spa, its beautiful boats, its crowded beaches in summer, its prohibitive real estate prices… and its poor people. In Arzon, according to the Observatory of Inequalities, there are 232 people living below the poverty line. A threshold that this independent organization places at €1,014 for a single person, €1,500 for a couple without children or even €2,500 for a couple with two children over 14 years old. The report that the Observatory of Inequalities made public on December 5 therefore indicates that the income of one in ten inhabitants of the commune of Arzon is below this floor level. And even that half of this population who lives in precariousness has less than €828.
This is the case of Jean-Dominique Marcel. This 73-year-old man, met at the Secours catholique office every Tuesday, lives on €800 per month. “I’m tightening my belt,” says this retiree laconically. “When you only have €800, that leaves no room for leisure.” Jean-Dominique says he knows someone whose monthly income is €500, seeming to say that there are people worse than him.
For 25 months, I only received €252. I was in survival. I turned my back. I lit myself with candles for a whole winter.
€252 per month
Charles Pauchard, 71, experienced extreme poverty. “For 25 months, I only received €252. I was in survival. I turned my back. I lit myself with candles for a whole winter. I calculated: it costs 3 cents an hour. » As a milestone in his period of great scarcity, this retiree remembers having only drunk one beer, in all, in 2022. A former plumber, he sank into poverty “because of a chronic illness serious contracted 28 years ago. I was in Paris at the time. I had the very bad idea of starting my own business. It didn’t work.” Charles inherited half of his parents’ house in the center of Arzon four years ago. A building that he is renovating as best he can, with the hope of creating accommodation upstairs and a small art gallery on the ground floor.
High intensity of poverty
At the church presbytery, these destitute people share coffee and cake with volunteers from Secours catholique. There are around ten of them who come like this, more or less regularly. These residents leave with vegetables given by a market gardener on the market.
In the report from the Observatory of Inequalities, Arzon occupies the very first place in Brittany on the index which assesses the intensity of this poverty. It is 28% in the municipality. What this means is that some poor people in Arzon are very poor, like the very complicated period that Charles Pauchard experienced.
At the CCAS in Arzon, however, there are only twelve families who benefit from support from the Food Bank. Its director Carole Dréan does not see herself in the picture of poverty drawn up by the Observatory of Inequalities. Even if she recognizes that “there is the problem of seasonal workers who we rarely touch”.
In counterpoint, public action
However, these seasonal workers constitute a significant part of Arzon’s assets. “Arzon, at this season, it’s deserted. There’s no cat, so no work. Seasonal jobs are precarious jobs. Just like care workers. And there are a lot of them in the town because we have a lot of elderly people. Arzon is a paradox, with poor people and conversely people who are very rich,” confides Philippe Druelle, deputy mayor in charge of social affairs. An elected official, who in contrast, highlights the proactive policy pursued by the municipality, with a public home help service, an independent residence and a stock of 130 social housing units.
