the harsh reality of children sleeping in the streets of Strasbourg

In just one year, the number of children sleeping on the streets of Strasbourg has doubled. According to several associations, there are 200 of them spending their night outside. BFM Alsace offers you a report immersed in this harsh, sometimes invisible reality.

According to several local associations, 200 children sleep in tents or cars in Strasbourg, double compared to just a year ago. They concentrate on two main encampments; the first, the Krimmeri camp, south of Strasbourg, was evacuated for the third time, on November 19.

At 5:30 a.m. that day, Ahmid was carefully packing his belongings. This Afghan has lived in France for more than two years with his two daughters.

An hour later, the police came to evacuate the camp where the family had taken up residence for two months. Here is the third time that the scene is repeated. Unlike others, Ahmid decides to keep his tent. It’s difficult to continue to believe in the promises of rehousing.

“I asked for accommodation, I’m still waiting,” explains Ahmid, who arrived “on September 21 in Strasbourg.”

“Life is hard here”

Almost everywhere in the aisles, small shadows appear. Children play and live here, like this little boy barely a year and a half old. “Life is hard. You see everyone lights fires to warm up, to cook. It's hard because it's cold at the moment and sometimes it rains,” confides the young boy's older brother , Murtaza, 17-year-old Afghan national.

“It’s even harder for the children, they are frozen. We can’t warm them up. They are so carefree,” shares the teenager.

The miners represent a third of this camp of 300 people. For three months, they lived without sanitation, with only a wood fire as their heating. “There are a lot of babies and some nights the wind blows very hard. It's very cold. The toilets are in a terrible state,” assures Fatma, a 14-year-old Afghan national.

The minors juggle between school, tents and the street. “My teachers know my situation, they are understanding. I do my best, I turn on the light then I sit there to do my homework,” says the young girl. “We hope that they will give us a house, for everyone. We hope that today will be a memorable day,” confides Fatma.

At 6:20 a.m., the national police were on site. Our reporters are invited to leave the camp. A few meters away, Sabine Carriou, a psychologist, helps families on the street. It is one of the first to sound the alarm, from November 2023. “The camps follow one another and continue and there is still no help provided on a case-by-case basis. We arrive at this type of dismantling where people are treated on a massive scale”, notes Sabine Carriou.

“We are really afraid that they will spend the winter on the streets as was the case last year,” she admits.

Public authorities pass the buck

Associations no longer know how to make themselves heard and public authorities are passing the buck. Among the institutions regularly singled out: the European community of Alsace.

That day, around a hundred gathered in front of his headquarters. Teachers mainly. They can't stand knowing their students are sleeping on the street when winter is here. They submit “the idea that, when we have students whose families do not have an accommodation solution and therefore sleep on the street, we can temporarily open staff accommodation which is sometimes vacant, in these colleges”, explains Céline Balasse, teacher at Lezay-Marnésia college in Strasbourg.

Pierrick Meunier, a teacher in the same establishment, reports that it has been several weeks since they “launched a movement to occupy the college”, after having alerted the public authorities and the CEA “for a long time”.

“Our main request was to open these staff accommodations which are empty and we still have no answer,” assures the teacher.

“The situation has been going on for a long time. Educational teams and parents have been mobilizing for years to try to find housing and solutions for the children,” continues Emmanuelle Artiguebeille, co-president of APEPA (Parents’ Association). of public education students in Alsace).

The staff at Lezay Marnesia College think they have found the solution. If their call for help goes unanswered, they will open the college gates themselves.

“It's still quite complicated to say that we are teaching them the values ​​of the Republic, the principle of solidarity. We explain to them that France is a social republic… At the moment when we tell them, in our strong internally we say to ourselves 'it's false what I'm saying because these people are on the street and should not be on the street, because accommodation is a right that is unconditional'”, believes Céline Balasse.

Every evening necessary, the five street families who frequent the establishment are sheltered in the library. “We try to find solutions for them and it leads to nothing,” laments Aurore Jouan, SEGPA professor at the college. The doors of staff accommodation remain securely closed.

Alcohol often present in the camps

Meriss, 15, did not have the chance to attend Lezay-Marnesia college. He has been living in a park in the Montagne Verte district for almost a year, with his parents and his two brothers under 10 years old.

When he returns from his design internship, he returns to his tent west of Strasbourg. “Most of the time it is so cold. But thank God we made a fire,” explains the Armenian national.

In this park, around 40 families. No shower and, for the only toilets, three unsanitary construction site cabins. “We never use these toilets, they are terrible,” expresses the teenager.

A situation made unbearable for his father. “It’s very, very hard. There’s a man who’s going to fight there. I’m afraid for my children,” confides Samir. Alcohol, which is very present, regularly encourages fights between several men.

At only 15 years old, Meriss coexists daily with excess alcohol and violence. He, who fled persecution in his country, now hopes for only one thing: to find a home.