The EELV and PS mayors of five municipalities have decided to take the State to administrative justice. They denounce “deficiencies” in terms of emergency accommodation.
330,000. This is the number of homeless people in France, according to the Abbé Pierre Foundation. An alarming figure which does not work in favor of the government and the State in terms of poor housing. In fact, the French state has just been sued by the environmentalist and socialist mayors of 5 large cities. Elected officials criticize it for certain “deficiencies” in terms of emergency accommodation and are calling for an “overhaul” of a system that is “running out of steam”.
An “ineffective and absolutely unworthy” system
Bordeaux, Grenoble, Rennes, Lyon and Strasbourg. Here are the 5 municipalities leagued against the State and who wish to pursue it before administrative justice. “The observation has been made for months, even years with extremely clear alerts” regrets Jeanne Barseghian, EELV mayor of Strasbourg, during an online press conference. She denounces a system that is now “inadequate, insufficient, ineffective and absolutely unworthy” with regard to homeless populations.
These municipalities are not their first attempt. Two months earlier, they had already attempted appeals before their respective prefectures, without response. This is why they decided, this time, to file “contentious compensation claims”. In other words, the cities are requesting reimbursement of expenses incurred for emergency accommodation “for which the State is responsible” indicated Jeanne Barseghian.
Rennes town hall is demanding more than 3 million euros
The amounts claimed by the municipalities vary relatively from one mayor to another. The city of Grenoble is demanding 51,000 euros. Bordeaux, 130,000 euros. 300,000 euros are claimed by Lyon, and no less than 918,000 euros by Strasbourg. Finally, with an appeal filed on February 9, Rennes and its mayor Nathalie Appéré are demanding more than 3 million euros from the French state. “We can no longer cope alone,” she declared.
The mayor of Lyon Grégory Doucet deplores the proportions taken by this situation, and echoes “requests that have remained unanswered”. The elected environmentalist from Grenoble Eric Piolle regrets Emmanuel Macron’s promise dating from 2017 and affirming that no one should sleep in the street by the end of his first five-year term. For her part, if she had participated in the first operation aimed at the prefectures, the mayor of Paris, Anne Hidalgo (PS) will not join this new approach alongside her five counterparts.