One year after the evacuation of this Val-d'Oise tower, a more than mixed result

Since that date, everything has changed for dozens of families.

Monday December 18, 2023, the 144 residents of the Guyenne tower, located rue de la Méditerranée in Sarcelles (Val-d'Oise), in the heart of the neighborhood of Flanades, were evacuated of their housing.

A decision prefectural to avoid a large fire in a building that was crumbling under co-ownership debts.

Rehousing

“We don’t want Teals “is one of the cities with fatal fires”, feared, a year ago, the mayor (Ps) of the City, Patrick Haddad.

To deal with this risk, it is a operation of very large scale which was held at the end of December 2023.

The implementation security residents had mobilized the police, including around ten CRs buses, police officers municipal, the Municipal Social Action Center (Ccas) of Sarcelles, the protection civil law and mediators, who accompanied the files administrative current residents.

The Guyenne Tower had been the subject of numerous reports. Firefighters and landlords had repeatedly warned of the dangerous situation, including the lack of collective heating, encouraging alternative and risky heating methods that could cause fires.

As a reminder, the tribunal administrative staff had mandated a expert whose conclusions, on November 20, 2023, reported a “tour dangerous for its tenants and required urgent safety work.

“As the administrator does not have the means to engage these worksevacuation was therefore necessary. The urban density of the neighborhood also presented a major risk of propagation possible fires,” adds the municipality.

The City welcomes

It was undoubtedly the most trying decision of my mandate. Above all, it was about protecting families, children and the elderly, after a year 2023 marked by numerous tragedies such as in Stains, Lyon or Grasse. I refused to play Russian roulette with lives.

The co-ownership was in debt to the tune of 1,2 M €financial situation alarming not only for the latter, but also for the tenants et owners.

THE invoices electricity reached sums unimaginable for the average French person.

The day after the evacuation, the City of Sarcelles took care of the 175 occupants who did not benefit from an accommodation solution, including owner-occupiers, who are usually not eligible for emergency accommodation solutions. All were accommodated in a hotel to ensure their safety.

A hotel of Pierrelayelocated more than 20 km away, had been chosen as the base.

115 people (38 households) were able to be rehoused sustainably. Only one family will be rehoused in January 2025. Among these households, 30 were able to stay in Sarcelles, despite the national context of the housing crisis.

Regarding owner-occupiers, “their situation remains complex, their property having become uninhabitable and of no value”, is indicated at the town hall, which assures that it has “initiated procedures aimed at facilitating the resalethus paving the way for a rehabilitation of the tower.”

In fact, a different portrait

On site, even if access to the building is now closed, knowledge former residents observe a completely different situation, with difficulties of rehousing and a feeling of abandonment for several families who lived in this tower.

The owner-occupiers and tenants of private landlords were relocated to the hotel for six months, with financing from a European fund.

In this 17-story building, some were left on the tile.

I know from a reliable source that a former resident is now on the street due to the explosion of charges. Those who were rehoused were not in the same conditions. Sometimes they live in a smaller and more expensive place.

The City's primary desire lay in this desire to have the tower taken over by a new lessor.

But, as Le Parisien explains, “the first consultation launched by the City to find a buyer to the tower has not received the slightest response: neither the lessors social nor the real estate developers showed any interest.”

A very sad fate for this buildingtoday uninhabited, where dozens of Sarcellois have built part of their existence, while some wish to return there vivre.

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