The fight against extreme exclusion is one of the axes of the solidarity pact presented this Monday, September 18, in France, by the government. And this while hundreds of families struggle every day to find a warm place to sleep.
With moist eyes, ringed by fatigue, she prefers to remain anonymous. This mother of five children arrived from Mauritania a year ago, without papers, without a partner, without income. With her children at school, she came this morning to this day center in the Paris region called Espérer 95. She comes to enjoy a meal and a shower. Everything that is missing when you are homeless or, in his case, when the only place to seek refuge with your five children is the entrance to a hospital. “ It’s cold, the children can’t sleep. I am tired », she confides.
In this hospital, the family is woken up at 4 a.m. by the security guards. So, since 9 a.m. this Thursday, this mother has been calling with two cell phones at the same time, in the hope that on one of them, 115, the emergency reception number, will answer her. “ I’m alone with five children, but that doesn’t change anything. On Tuesday I was told there was no room. Yesterday, since nine o’clock, I started calling 115 until midnight, but no one picked up “, she laments.
“ Families are hungry, they can no longer feed themselves »
“ It is complicated. Sometimes I have a headache. I got up at 5am to go to school », says her 12-year-old daughter, who came back from school to eat for free at the center. In addition to fatigue in class, the teenager must face another problem: hunger. This family’s only meal is often eaten here, at reception. Except that since this summer, there is no longer something for everyone.
Marie Jo Dubot, director of the center, is distraught. “ At the day center, we are funded for 80 meals, so 80 people. We also have an average of 130 to 150 people per day, so we don’t have enough. Sometimes we have scrounged everything and unfortunately say to families: “We are really sorry, we have nothing left”. Families are hungry, they can no longer feed themselves, where just a few months ago, they could at least buy a packet of pasta. It has become too expensive. We are going through an unprecedented food crisis. »
For the moment, no concrete solution has been proposed to this center, more than half of the beneficiaries of which are families and children.
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