The first cold wave hit Paris and the region. How can you imagine living on the streets, day and night, without the warmth of a comfortable bed. But this is the daily life of thousands of people who are displaced every year in France. Today, many of them wander around all day, looking for a friendly place or a good Samaritan who will help them with a hot drink.
This was the case for Pierre, who “celebrated” his 50th birthday on the sidewalk in March. Alone. “I never imagined this day. Nothing prepared me for it,” he whispered, this Monday, November 24 at La Verrière (Yvelines), where we arranged to meet him. His sad, cloudy eyes spoke volumes about his deep and simple sadness. For more than two years he lived, hiding, in a cellar in a small town west of Paris.
The last national survey, conducted in 2012, identified 12,700 homeless people in the country and 143,000 homeless people. In Île-de-France, the prefecture reported, in 2018, more than 100,000 people stayed each night in special buildings, or more than 1% of the population of Île-de-France. This data is not just numbers. Behind, there are women, men, often the elderly, who are invisible and dehumanized by urban density. In La Verrière, population 6,000, everyone knows everyone. Pierre is a man with a family history linked to the working class neighborhood of Bois-de-l’Étang.
Victim of theft of suitcase and letters
“He comes from a big and well-known family here. His grandmother was friends with my mother,” explained Lounes, a resident who decided to contact him. Last week, the father launched an appeal for help on Facebook, to get him off the streets by finding him emergency accommodation as winter approaches.
A former member of the French Navy, Pierre lived in a small apartment in Évreux (Eure) before becoming disabled and losing his home. He ended up putting mattresses, pillows and blankets in “the only open basement in a building to be rehabilitated”, said the fifty-year-old, who also sometimes found “refuge with a friend”. In his misery, his suitcase, two bags, and all his letters were even stolen by Pierre a few days ago…
“Now he’s weak, there is hyenas (sic) who took advantage of it,” Lounes regrets. But the worst thing is the cold. “Last week I was cold. If it was like this, I could stay under the blanket all day, said the homeless man, whose health was deteriorating. I’m sick of dungeons and they scare me: I don’t want to die on the street or on the stairs. »
Thanks to an appeal on social networks, he found his 18-year-old daughter
In this small town in the Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines agglomeration, where the unemployment rate is around 16%, people feel resourcefulness and solidarity. “I passed him, walking without a coat, I stopped to give him the coat I had in the car,” said Djenaba, who was “touched” by the post published on the social network. “I recognize him, so it’s fine to help him.” » The appeal for help launched by Lounes also allowed Pierre’s family to reconnect with him.
His 18-year-old daughter came from Normandy to see him last weekend. “I cried when I saw him…” testified the father, who had remained hesitant before meeting him, overcome by feelings of “embarrassment”. The human size of the Yvelines commune also allows the homeless to remain invisible.
Asked about Pierre’s case, the mayor took matters into his own hands by contacting the social action service Yvelines (SAS). “This man benefited from domicile at the Élancourt Red Cross (the neighboring town of La Verrière) then he left for La Rochelle (Charente-Maritime). So, they lost track of him a little and, without realizing it, he returned to the sector,” explains Nicolas Dainville, the right-wing elected official who organized the social assistance meeting this Friday, November 28.
“I’m afraid he won’t make it through the winter”
Except that over the years it had damaged Pierre, who later became an alcoholic. “I’m very worried about it,” Lounes reacted again. He’s weakened, he’s got 18 stitches in one of his legs, broken bones, I’m afraid he won’t make it through the winter. »
A terrible fate that often befalls these women and men. Last week, in Trappes, not far from there, Mehdi, a 54-year-old homeless man, was found unconscious in the street. Frozen to death? No one knows.
