The largest city in Marseille, made up of 100% social housing, Frais-Vallon is celebrating the sixtieth anniversary of the start of its construction this year. Between the urban renewal plan which is long overdue, the poverty which affects a large number of inhabitants and the significance of traffic, report in this city representative of the northern districts of Marseille.

Arriving in the middle of the day at the Frais-Vallon metro, which is based on the Old Port of Marseille to the city in about fifteen minutes, the atmosphere is calm. Around, we quickly spot the street sales of fruits and vegetables and the various drug trafficking; some teenagers and youth adults attend the surroundings, on the lookout. A little further on, there is already a queue at the bakery. It is noon. A few mothers walk between the different buildings of Frais-Vallon with their children.

Built between 1962 and 1964 to accommodate the inhabitants of slums and unhealthy islets, as well as the many returnees from Algeria, Frais-Vallon is a district of large housing estates of the 13th century.^e district of Marseille, located in the northern districts.

There are nearly 7,000 inhabitants living in the 1,480 social housing units that make up the city. Since the demolition of two buildings in 1992 and 2016, the city has fourteen buildings, including three 21-storey towers, all arranged around the avenue de Frais-Vallon, a thoroughfare required by many Marseille residents who give their name to the city. ‘together. The district has three kindergartens, two elementary schools, a college and a swimming pool which will soon be destroyed and restored. The HLMs are managed by Habitat Marseille Provence (HMP), a social housing organization more than a century old whose head office is in the heart of the district.

Like many cities in Marseille, Frais-Vallon was partly built to accommodate returnees from Algeria who had come en masse despite the initial opposition of the socialist mayor of the city, Gaston Defferre, who urged them to “go readapt elsewhere “. We were able to discuss with Jean-Luc, a retiree who now lives in a village located between Marseille and Aix, about his experience in Frais-Vallon. Coming from a family of Jewish Pieds-noirs repatriated from Algiers in the early 1960s, he lived for a year with his parents and two brothers in the city. Between 1968 and 1969, the family lived in building D, which was destroyed in 1992 to allow the construction of the metro line. Jean-Luc has rather good memories of this year spent in the neighborhood. At 17, he was part of a small group of musicians who rehearsed in the basement of the building. “The atmosphere between Pieds-noirs was one of solidarity. We stay between us because already at the time, there began to be immigrants from North Africa. However, we had left Algeria in terrible conditions and did not want to find ourselves again in a conflictual situation with the Algerians here. » His father, a postman with a modest salary, takes a dim view of the rival gangs that have already formed in the surrounding estates and their fights with bicycle chains. He does not want to risk his sons being confronted with violence; a year after settling in, the family moved to “a safer corner of Marseille, in the IX^e borough “.

For Jean-Luc, it was the social environment that carried the seeds of the degradation that we perceive today, the one that caused his family to move. Moreover, when they had the opportunity and the means, all the pied-noirs often did the same. The quality of the build was not in question: “We lived in a beautiful new duplex apartment with a view of Friuli and the sea. The living conditions here were pleasant”he takes care to remind.

Residents rely more on local solidarity than on the actions of elected officials

We are going to meet several inhabitants who have lived in Frais-Vallon for several years. Among them, Amine Kessaci, a young man of 19, still living there. He comes and goes in the streets of the city and greets the inhabitants by their first name, as if we were in a village. The death of his older brother Brahim, found charred in a car during yet another settling of accounts, at the age of 22, Amine joined his neighborhood.

We find him near the mosque in the premises of a tenants’ association which is preparing the election of their representatives to the board of directors of HMP. Among those present, the young widow of her brother and her three-year-old daughter who runs in all directions, but also a mother in a precarious situation. Dounia* spent four months in her car, between July and November this year, with her four children, all of whom go to school, after being evicted from her previous accommodation and contracting a heavy joint debt with her ex-husband who, don’t pay it. She has just found a solution in a home after knocking on all the doors. She denounces the fact of not being heard by elected officials and is part of the requests for bribes in cash to obtain social housing more quickly. Moreover, this mother of Algerian origin is indignant at going after certain migrants. “I was born here, I vote here, and yet I am housed after Nigerians or Ukrainians [ces derniers sont logés dans d’autres quartiers de Marseille que Frais-Vallon, NDLR]. »

Despite repeated incivilities, the hope of an improvement remains

We sent a certain discouragement, even a disgust for politics on the part of the inhabitants. Critics of elected officials in charge of housing in the city fuse. Mayor LR of the XIII^e and XIV^e boroughs, Marion Bareille, also takes it for her rank. “Apart from wearing her mayor’s scarf well, it is useless, we call her Miss France”breath Lila*, educator in the XIV^e district of Marseille, which praises the virtues of associative and civic engagement to get things done.

When we ask tenants what are the main problems encountered in Frais-Vallon, three answers are reminiscent: the renovation of buildings, cleanliness and safety. “We are still waiting for renovations here, some apartments are not in good condition, for example one of the tenants has had a broken window that was not closed for months”explains Étienne*, caretaker of one of the buildings who lives full-time in Frais-Vallon. “Some residents throw their garbage cans out the window every day. We find the ground strewn with rubbish. They imagine that others will pass behind them to clean everything. Or, some urinate in the stairwell, or in the elevator », he says, annoyed. Amine says that as part of his association, “Conscience”, present in many large cities in France, he regularly organizes neighborhood cleaning operations. “At the Collège des Chartreux or at the Saint-Bruno private college, we have management and teachers who respond to our invitations and take their classes to clean up neighborhoods that are not theirs. Conversely, a stone’s throw from here, at the Jacques-Prévert college, we never have any answer., he explains, a bit annoyed. However, he keeps his course and his confidence in the mobilization of local actors for carelessness and incivility. “Awareness of cleanliness will pass through youth, thanks to prevention”he believes.

Between dismantling and immediate reconstitution, drug trafficking continues

As for security issues, the inhabitants are calling for local police which, according to them, would be more effective in combating trafficking. In the current state of things, the action taken against the traffickers is similar to a policy of numbers: “The police come here once or twice every two months, raid for four hours and then leave. Twenty-eight minutes later, the traffic is restored », says a neighbor. What we confirm is Eddy Sid, FO Police Unit delegate in Marseille, born in the northern districts and who, after more than ten years in Paris, returned to work in Marseille. “There is a discouraging aspect to seeing some resellers who have just been arrested and who come out the same day and start their activities again. Criminal policy does not always follow the field work carried out by officials committed to their public service mission. » The police must be better supported in their fight against “a monumental underground economy, which sometimes supports dozens of families”says Eddy Sid. “Most of the inhabitants are embarrassed by the delinquents but they must crush because the latter have ramifications and support around them; as they earn thousands of dollars, they are respected and feared. And they keep this parallel system going by recruiting youth teenagers who do not think long between working at school and earning 100 to 300 euros a day as choufs » [guetteurs, NDLR], explains the police unionist. Despite everything, he does not give up and believes that with an effective toughening of the judicial repression of traffickers, the situation could improve.

Possible pacification, according to the local MP

In 2021, a settling of scores on the night of July 6 to 7 left one dead at the foot of a building, shot dead in the head. Two months later, just after Emmanuel Macron’s visit to Frais-Vallon, police officers were attacked and beaten by a dozen individuals while they were arresting a drug dealer. Bloody miscellaneous facts that persist in mourning this city at regular intervals. This subject is close to the heart of Gisèle Lelouis, RN deputy for this constituency, who has lived in the northern districts of Marseille since 1997. “We want to pacify these neighborhoods by granting social housing to deserving families who do not cause harm to those around them, for example by setting up a charter of respect for the living environment which could be signed by tenants. » She insists, as does Marine Le Pen at the national level, on the reinforcement of police personnel and on the real application of sentences to curb drug trafficking. Another problem, according to her, is the Roma camp near the L2 ring road interchange, which is reforming despite the evictions, “which underlines the inaction of Martine Vassal and the municipal majority LR of Marion Bareille”. She also denounces vote buying and promises to hire youth of the city which, according to her, would have had the effect of winning voters for the LR team in place. Nevertheless, the MP underlines the assets of Frais-Vallon: this place is not, in her opinion, a territory neglected by the Republic, benefiting from financing under the city policy intended for the priority districts targeted Frais- Vallon belongs, being well served by transport (metro, bus, bypass) and well integrated into Marseille.

*Names have been changed.

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