The emergency accommodation center located in the 16th arrondissement of Paris, the opening of which had aroused violent opposition from residents and elected officials of this district anchored on the right, will be extended by at least three years, announces the City of Paris.
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With a capacity of 200 people and managed by the Aurore association, the center “The promise of dawn» has welcomed nearly 600 people since its opening in November 2016, «including 209 children but also 53 people aged over 60“, indicates the town hall of Paris to underline a social report “absolutely indisputable“.
“The controversies are now behind us”
The location of this center at Porte de Passy, an affluent district on the edge of the Bois de Boulogne, had provoked very violent reactions among some residents, who had disrupted a public meeting organized at the Dauphine University, insulting in particular the prefect of Paris Sophie Brocas. The mayor LR of the XVIth arrondissement Claude Goasguen, who has since died, had denounced the “diktatof the town hall of Paris and more than 40,000 residents had signed a petition against this center described as “new Sangatte“, in reference to the center of the Red Cross which had gathered up to 800 migrants in Calais, before being closed in 2002.
Two arson attempts had also taken place. But since then, the centerfinally found its place in the neighborhood and the criticisms immediately stopped“, welcomes the town hall, emphasizing the “many interactions with schools and the parish of the neighborhood“. “The controversies are now behind us, local residents are now lending a hand to the teams“, insists to AFP Ian Brossat, the assistant (PCF) to the emergency accommodation of the PS mayor Anne Hidalgo who justifies the extension of the center by the lack “cruel» accommodation places in the capital.
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Initially planned for a period of three years, the center had already been extended from 2019 to 2022 and was to be dismantled from the fall. But “the pandemic has largely contributed to further weakening precarious people” and “social watch systems are under extreme pressure“, according to the town hall, with, in Paris according to Aurore, a sudden increase in day care by 60% for families and 100% for isolated people and on the street. The next Council of Paris will have to validate this decision to which the government gave a favorable opinion at the end of April.
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