By
Juliette Cardinale
Published on
May 27, 2024 at 6:32 a.m.
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In Bordeaux, the Angéliques park, located on Quai Deschamps, hosts a solidarity reception area for the homeless for more than three years. But in a few months, many people have settled on the fringes of the system.
“We saw this space being increasingly occupied by tents,” says Daniel*. With his wife Danièle, they have owned an apartment for three years in the Empreinte residence, located opposite the park.
Like other residents of the residence, they deplore “the invasion of the park by illegal camps. The inhabitants of Empreinte interviewed by Bordeaux news describe visual nuisance, with the presence of tents and “rubbish, waste” in the park.
The solidarity reception area
Originally, at the end of 2020, the associations Maraude du cœur and the Free Gironde Solidarité set up a solidarity reception area for around ten homeless people at Parc aux Angéliques, in conjunction with the town hall and various services and associations. It was supposed to last a few months but continued due to a lack of solutions to rehouse the beneficiaries. Since then, other homeless people have taken advantage of the tolerance to settle in the park. There would be around fifty of them.
Nuisances to which must be added the sound aspect. If on another floor Pierre is satisfied with putting “the music a little louder” at home, Danièle describes “regularly people who shout, speak loudly, argue, late and at night. One evening, a person shouted and gesticulated in the middle of the square. She staggered away. It’s scandalous to see that.”
Without forgetting the dogs and their barking, sources of insecurity for the residents of the residence. “The dogs prevent you from approaching,” emphasize Jeanne and Marcel, her husband. “Last August, one of our neighbors was walking his dog on a leash and holding a child in his arms. Another dog arrived and grabbed his by the throat, seriously injuring him,” says Daniel. “The homeless owner was defecating in the thickets. »
Different residents are used to seeing police or emergency sirens. “There are drugs. People make fires, there are accidents,” explains Luc, tenant. “One evening last summer, a tent burned. Inside and around many syringes were found,” says Daniel. It was following these two events that residents launched a petition to put an end to “wild camping”.
A park “confiscated” from its inhabitants
In view of these elements, the observation is the same among most residents: they no longer go in the park. “I wish I could walk peacefully today I avoid crossing the street,” confides Pierre.
“We were going to play ball with our grandson, he was riding his bike on the square… But we don’t go there anymore at all,” say Daniel and his wife. “It stinks, we go on our side of the street or on the cycle path, but no longer under the wisteria. How do you expect us to go for a walk when people defecate in the bushes? Enough is enough. »
Jeanne and Marcel remember a “very nice park, where we could walk” when they moved in 2020. “There were groups doing yoga, cycling, picnics… It’s a space cool and shady, near the Garonne, but this public place is now confiscated,” sighs Jeanne. For several months, the couple has confined themselves to Bikeway which runs along the park.
Some are less worried, like Pascal, a resident of the neighborhood we meet in the park. There’s walks daily his dog “without fear or problem. » There remains a minority, when most of the residents interviewed prefer to avoid the park. To reinvest the latter, they have ideas.
“We made an appointment with the town hall a few months ago, to propose ways to develop this park,” explains Daniel, with arrangements for children or to play sports, For example.
For Pierre, the park must be part of “a project that includes the entire shore”, to don’t move the problem elsewhere and “avoid playing cop and thief”. Because anyone who wants to see the “most beautiful view of Bordeaux” preserved advises them to look in the long term.
Find lasting solutions
“We have to give time. We are in a state of law, we must find a collective solution and we must learn to reintegrate these people. They live in conditions that we must not accept in 2024,” laments Pierre. “But in France we are the world champions at passing the buck.”
“The goal is only in September 2024 the occupation of the Parc aux Angéliques is over,” stressed Harmonie Lecerf Meunier last week, deputy mayor responsible for access to rights, solidarity and seniors.
Pierre finds it hard to believe these deadlines are tenable, especially with summer approaching. “Before reversing a curve, it must stop growing. If we are not not able to stop the flow, how can we empty the area? », he asks. “If it’s to start again next January, there’s no point.”
In favor of allowing time, therefore, for lasting solutions to be found. “Safety and maintenance, supporting people, must be part of the project,” adds Pierre. One of his neighbors, Marcel, seems to agree with his words: “To regain access to the park, you need a methodology, a perspective. The associations are doing a good job but we don’t know if they will move until there is political will.”
On a higher floor, we no longer believe it at all. ” They have been rehearsing for three years and the camps are expanding. If there is an experiment, time and space limits must be given to set up. But with the kind of tolerance, it creates a breath of fresh air and attracts other people. These people have rights, but what are their duties? », lament Daniel and his wife.
Rather the impression that the place is “abandoned” despite assurances from the municipality and associations, who claim to work in close collaboration on the subject. The park has also been included on a platform for resolving squats and shanty towns to speed up the process.
For Daniel, the official words are like the wind. “It’s no longer the time for diagnosis, they’ve been doing it for three years. We must act, we need to relocate. At a minimum, put up signs prohibiting camping.”
For the couple, the situation is “scandalous”. “What does it mean to completely redo a place like Stalingrad if there is a slum next to it? », questions Danièle. ” They have installed misters, but apart from serving as a shower for squatters… It’s surreal and provocative. »
Daniel contacted a lawyer to find out about possible recourse if things do not move forward. ” I do not rule out initiating proceedings,” he emphasizes. “We pay taxes through property tax, they don’t pay. If you also have to pay a lawyer…”
“We didn’t know”
Everyone would like to be involved in the future project of this park and associated with the process. Or at least be kept informed. “We weren’t told anything. When we learned things, it was because we got closer to the local town hall,” explains Daniel. When the reception area was set up, they were not notified.
“We are ready to collaborate to find solutions, we know that it is complicated for people on the street. Home understands impatience from certain residents, because we have the impression that nothing is happening,” continues Jeanne.
On September 13, the neighbors’ party will be held at the park: “The goal is to invest it and show that we need it”, explains Jeanne. The opportunity to move things forward to “recover this beautiful, tree-lined and secure street, where we feel good and where we can go out,” adds Pierre.
*all first names are assumed names chosen by residents
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