for homeless students, solidarity is organized |
The collective Jamais Sans Toit lists 115 street children, educated in schools in the Metropolis of Lyon. Faced with this situation, the parents of students and teachers organize themselves to help them, and occupy schools.
In her fair trade grocery store in the heart of La Guillotière, Marina is busy. With Audrey, they bend over a stack of papers. Written in pink felt-tip pen, a list of children and families. It lists the students of the Gilbert Dru school on the street. With other parents of students and residents of the Audery and Marina district, form “Solidru”, a solidarity collective which helps these families. They raise funds, accommodate, provide meals, but above all, occupy the school to accommodate parents and children.
While the schoolchildren of the Métropole de Lyon have just found their way back to school on Monday, November 8, not all are housed in the same boat, nor even housed at all. The Jamais Sans Toit collective counted 115 schoolchildren in the area who sleep rough. Their families are mostly asylum seekers, and must be housed by the French Office for Immigration and Integration (OFII) or the Metropolis. The collective, which tells about parents of students, teachers and residents, wants to challenge the public authorities.
A very complex file because several institutions are competent, and which comes back every year. In 2020, the problem had been less visible because these families had been sheltered in an emergency with the health crisis.
School trades
Since the start of the 2021 school year, several schools in the Métropole de Lyon have been occupied by parents of pupils. In Vénissieux, Villeurbanne, in the 7th or 4th arrondissement of Lyon … In a gymnasium, a corner of the school, an unused room, families previously living on the street are settling down. Often, it was the teachers or the school administration who alerted the parents of the pupils. Then they get organized: who can welcome for the shower? To cook? To sleep with families? Occupations to which the ecological town hall, in charge of schools, does not wish to oppose.
“Occupation is not a solution. The institutions let us manage for them. We take care of family files, stewardship, logistics … Emergency accommodation center, this n is not our job “, indignant Audrey of the Solidru collective, a former parent of a student mobilized at the Gilbert Dru school.
“When we learned that two children were sleeping in the street, we found ourselves taken aback. Then, as parents of students, we formed a support committee”, explains Stefaniya, parent of a pupil at the Commandant Arnaud school (4th), occupied for some time before the autumn school holidays. An Italian mother, who recently arrived in France, and her two children had been living on the streets for a few days. Initially, the parents want to host them at home. They are advised by other schools that are used to these issues. “They told us” it’s good but it’s hiding the problem “, so we chose to occupy the school”, develops Stefaniya. Since then, the family has been able to find accommodation in the town hall, supervised by an association.
At Gilbert Dru, school jobs have become a habit. Almost every year, the school is invested to welcome families. “We have identified 7 adults and 12 children sleeping rough in Gilbert Dru”, details Audrey, at the beginning of November. In 2021, before the All Saints holidays, a family was already staying at Gilbert Dru. The day after the holidays, on November 8, a single mother and her 6 children are housed in the school. “Occupation is not a solution. The institutions let us manage for them. We take care of family files, stewardship, logistics … Emergency accommodation center, this n is not our job “, indignant the former parent of the student.
The latest, the Louis Pasteur school (8th) is occupied to welcome a mother in regular situation with her three children of 5, 8 and 9 years old. The Pasteur Sans Toit collective calls for mobilization on Friday, November 12 at 5 p.m. at school, in conjunction with Jamais sans toit.
A network of solidarity
Who are these parents who are mobilizing? Waiter, senior manager, consultant, school director, small trader, civil servant … the profiles are multiple. Some were already activists or sensitized on the issue of asylum seekers, but most are just mobilized in the face of an emergency. “They are friends of our children. Knowing that they sleep outside … we cannot remain insensitive”, explains Simon Clavier, president of the association “Parents dans la dru”. His association, less involved than Solidru, relays the jackpots and information to parents. It also challenges the press and institutions. “It has been several years since this problem in Gilbert Dru. But usually it is a family, there, 4 families, it’s colossal”, he is alarmed. The local section of the FCPE is also mobilized.
A few hundred meters further on, at the Cavennes school (7th), the parents of the students are more unsettled. They are not used to dealing with this situation. Two families, a mother with her child and two parents with two children are homeless in this school. Who is not currently busy. “We are in contact with the Gilbert Dru school which has more experiences than us. We have planned to meet at the start of the school year”, explains Marion Cannelle, a parent of a student. If about twenty parents are mobilized to support families, Marion feels a little helpless and would like the institutions to take over. “We have the impression of having exhausted all avenues, of being at an impasse”, she laments.
At the metropolitan level, Jamais sans toit plays a centralizing role. The collective is contacted by the schools mobilized and takes into account the families on the street. Precisely. As of November 2, the association lists 22 homeless children in Villeurbanne, 5 in Vaulx-en-Velin, 2 in Rillieux, 7 in Saint-Genis-Laval, and around fifty in Lyon. The 7th arrondissement is the most affected, with 16 children identified. This situation can be explained by the presence of the Refugee Forum association and the OFII office in this district.
“At the FCPE Rhône, we position ourselves as Never without a roof. Children must go to school and have a roof over their heads whatever the status of their parents”, says Marie Lugnier-Jamet, president of FCPE Rhône. The departmental section of the association supports the mobilizations of parents, and does not hesitate to sign on behalf of the FCPE letters addressed to elected officials or institutions. “We are part of institutional bodies, such as the Departmental Council of National Education, we can bring the word of these families where Never without a roof is not “, develops the president. Worried, the parents of students are mobilizing on several fronts.
A tangle of institutions
Its figures, Never without roof, frequently go back to local and national institutions: the City, the Metropolis, the OFII and the prefecture. “We think that there are many more children on the street. Families do not always stand out and do not dare to talk about their situations”, explains Allan Maria, member of Never Without Roof. “Currently, there is a drop in care. We can only worry that so many children are on the street”, he laments.
“We cannot go beyond our powers. The State must take its responsibilities”, calls Renaud Payre, vice-president in charge of housing at the Métropole de Lyon.
For the most part asylum seekers, these families must be taken care of by the OFII, within reception centers for asylum seekers (CADA). Namely that single women with children under three years old are the responsibility of the Metropolis, according to article L222-5 of the code of social action and families. With regard to emergency accommodation, via calls to 115, the prefecture is responsible. But another actor has come to slip into this tangle: the City of Lyon. Who has decided to make a gesture for these families, although it is not within its competence.
Sandrine Runel, inclusion and solidarity assistant for the City of Lyon, met several of the schools involved. The town hall is working to make housing from municipal heritage available by mid-November. “About fifteen housing units can be made available. We are doing it because it is unbearable to let kids sleep outside”, supports the chosen one. She explains that the town hall is working in conjunction with the prefecture on a “zero street children plan” to combine housing loans and family follow-up.
Never without a roof listed 17 children under 3 years old living on the streets in the metropolitan area. On Wednesday, October 27, the collective had a meeting with Renaud Payre, vice-president in charge of housing at the Métropole de Lyon. “It’s a real problem, affirms immediately the elected ecologist. This is why we have never received homeless people and that we are going to look at these situations in detail “. For him, however, the files presented were of couple families with children under 3 years old. This does not fall under the jurisdiction of the Metropolis but of the State.
“We have the Amazon and the Base, two places of accommodation that welcome isolated women with their children under the age of three. They are currently full. We will soon vote for a grant to develop the Base.”, announces Renaud Payre, who explains that the Amazon will also be enlarged.
For the elected, if this is not enough, the Metropolis is already committed a lot. “We cannot go beyond our powers. The State must take its responsibilities”, respondent Renaud Payre. When contacted, the prefecture did not answer our questions. Metropolis, town hall, prefecture, OFII, national education … difficult to know in which court is the ball.