“This situation speaks volumes about the will of the city of Paris to claim that it reaches out to the homeless,” deplores Alice Corrocher, coordinator for the association for the defense of people in exile and migration Utopia 56.
This weariness comes as behind her, a hundred homeless refugees, mostly families with young children, are still gathered at 8:30 am this Friday, January 24 on the forecourt of the town hall of the 19th arrondissement, in the north of Paris . An action which therefore continues since the day before, around 8 p.m. “They were up to 150 last night,” said the coordinator.
“From 5.30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m., a hundred people had gathered on the town hall square, and dispersed. Then from 7:30 p.m. to 1 hour, another rally was formed near the town hall of the 19th arrondissement of Paris. Some political figures or members of collectives have joined the group, ”describes the Paris police headquarters.
Mobilized on the initiative of Utopia 56, these people living on the street wanted to “take advantage of the night of solidarity to visibility their situation”, she continues. This operation organized each year for eight years by the City of Paris allows you to count the number of people sleeping outside. In 2024, nearly 3,500 people were on the street.
Crowd movement and deplorable conditions
“Officially, this operation aims to meet homeless people and to know their needs to bring them back to the state,” writes the association. “But it is only a night of counting which leads to concrete responses or the opening of housing,” continues Alice Corrocher.
They ask in particular to be welcomed in the Lycée Georges-Brassens, “unoccupied and made available by the prefecture and the region”, and that the State applies the law of requisition of unoccupied places to resolve concrete and effectively homelessness .
-According to the association, it is the mayor of the 19th arrondissement, François Dagnaud (PS), who would be opposed to the requisition of the building. In this regard, the councilor insisted in our columns last October on the fact that a Franco-Berber center was about to settle in the building of the disused high school. He then recalled that the 19th century would have “the record for emergency accommodation and support systems towards drug addicts and migrants”.
The councilor also said today in a publication X that an shelter of families present since last night was in progress. “Thank you to the municipal teams for finding concrete solutions with us,” he enjoins.
Utopia 56 also denounces the deployment of substantial police numbers on the places of the rally. “About 5 CRS trucks were present last night. The police have nash families on the small sidewalk which serves as a forecourt at the town hall, ”denounces Alice Corrocher. According to her, the police system led to “deplorable conditions” to carry out a distribution of blankets and created crowd movements. “A woman lost consciousness around 2 am,” points out the coordinator.
The police headquarters declare that “the rallies were held calm, under the vigilance of the police”.
