The device is called “towing” : 62 housing units, including 30 places for single mothers with children under 3 years old, were installed in the spring in old refrigerated trailers by the Métropole de Lyon, and inaugurated on June 7. Around fifteen trailers were recovered and transformed into small apartments. They are distributed, like a small village, around a former civil aviation maintenance field, in Bron, about an hour from the center of Lyon. We can guess on the exterior walls the names of the old transporters. The interior is redone with bedroom, small living room, bathroom, water and electricity.
Next to the trailers, a building houses an integration site, which offers jobs lasting from four to twenty hours per week. The operation was carried out by the Salvation Army with the help of the municipality, for a total cost of 1.2 million euros, financed by the metropolis of Lyon, the State, and several patrons, including ‘Entreprise des possibilities, foundation created by industrialist Alain Mérieux.
“The image of the trailer speaks for itself. Without a tractor, it’s not going anywhere. But it has wheels, it can move if we take it with us, declared Colonel Jacques Donzé, president of the Salvation Army. After twelve years of use, these trailers are withdrawn from circulation. The idea is to give them a second life that is useful. »
“Hide poverty”
During the inauguration, the president ecologist from the Metropolis, Bruno Bernard, castigated Emmanuel Macron’s policies, accusing him of “displace populations in great precariousness to hide poverty”, on the eve of the Olympic Games (OG), which begin on July 26. “Many homeless people come to us from Ile-de-France, we see arrivals every week, and it is up to us to manage their situation. For what ? So as not to show the misery in our country”, did he declare.
According to the elected environmentalist, “for six months, around a hundred people per month” are taken to the temporary reception area, located in the Vaise district, in the 9e district of Lyon. In theory, this regional center aims to establish a social diagnosis and direct populations in great difficulty to suitable places, in twelve departments of Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes.
“The neighboring departments are not playing the game, management of this situation is up to us. The Metropolis of Lyon is doing its part, it is doing what it can,” said Bruno Bernard. According to state services, transfers mainly concern populations seeking asylum, at a rate of around fifty people every three weeks. According to the same source, their support circuit would not affect emergency accommodation capacity.
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