“We asked ourselves the question of having a Christmas party, but we didn’t have the heart for it…” The Habitat Jeunes residence (1) la Roulière, managed by Cap habitat, will permanently close its doors on December 31, after more than thirty years of service. Like social organizer Damien Dubrulle, many had prepared to celebrate Christmas at Joséphine-Baker at Clou-Bouchet. But the situation has changed: the Cap habitat association will no longer manage it, and the staff will not be taken over. Four employees are laid off.
This is the case of Brigitte Sagory. She left her countryside in 1985 for a job in « la Zup ». Accommodated at the Atlantique residence, she ended up being hired there to do cleaning, before arriving at La Roulière in 1992. She knows the building by heart. With her colleague Taous Khali, they have all the rooms in mind: the one whose window pane is peeled off, the one which turns into an oven when summer arrives, the one which has the best view of the Saint-André church.
“We saved this little girl, she passed her baccalaureate”
“One day a resident came to see me in tears. She told me about her life. I relieved her, as I would have relieved my children”remembers Taous, who has worked at the residence for twenty-nine years. She does the cleaning there, but also talks to young people, advises them, guides them. “Do you remember that young girl? We had gone to wake her up the morning of her baccalaureate.”his colleague asks, with moist eyes. “Yes, we even gave him a pencil. She never gave it back to us. But we saved this little girl. She got her baccalaureate! »
With tears in his eyes, Taous prepares to leave the vast building. “I feel like I’m going through a funeral every day at the moment”she said. “What am I going to do behind? When you have forty years of housekeeping behind you, and you haven't taken the time to train yourself… All that doesn't go away.” Brigitte blurted. “It’s painful. Until the end we put on a good show with the young people…”, sighs Damien Dubrulle, before also letting tears escape.
All relocated
Among the 44 residents housed at La Roulière at 1is October, nine obtained a place at Joséphine-Baker, twelve are at Atlantique (managed by Cap habitat), six in the social park, five in the private sector. Others returned to their families, or their region, but “no one will be at 115”se soulage-t-on.
An emblematic building in the city center, the Roulière residence has in turn been a high school, a chamber of commerce and a House of Associations.
© (Photo NR, Baptiste Decharme)
Certainly, the residence located in the city center was no longer in its infancy. Buckets to limit water damage sat alongside fungus born from mold and corridors too narrow to meet standards. But she was part of the neighborhood. The private mansion of 18e century saw a high school parade in the 19the century, the chamber of commerce at the beginning of the 20eanother high school then, the Maison des associations after the war, and finally a youth housing residence. Damien Dubrulle remembers the concerts that the building hosted. “It was a place of prefiguration of the Camji. Here we have paintings by Slimane [Ould Mohand]drawings by Guillaume Bouzar…”
We will have to separate from all this. Hanging from the ceiling of the old common room, a panel “La Roulière saloon” is the last witness of a past evening. Everything else has been removed, and soon the windows will be bricked up.
(1) Youth Housing Residence (RHJ) or Young Workers Home (FJT), equivalent designations for “transitional” accommodation structures dedicated to young people, with substantial social support.
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