He arrived perched on a big black bike, as big as him, and to the applause of the crowd gathered for an improvised press conference this Wednesday evening, place de la Bastille, in Paris. A little embarrassed to be the center of attention, but at the same time grateful to the police for having offered him a platform to talk about housing, or rather those who are deprived of it. “A roof is a right”: in front of the barnums of the camp where 220 families “forgotten from the Dalo” (for enforceable right to housing) have been taking turns since March 5, the 15th anniversary of the law, Jean-Baptiste Eyraud , the spokesperson for the Right to Housing (DAL) association, recounted his misadventures with the police.
The day before, the DAL was demonstrating in rue Saint-Simon, very close to the Ministry of Housing, when the police charged, believing the demonstration prohibited on the roadway, to push the activists back onto the sidewalk. The police used tear gas, two women who are part of the 220 Dalo de Bastille were molested and Eyraud violently tackled to the ground, before being placed in police custody in stride for “rebellion”. “I admit that it didn’t hurt me“, quipped Eyraud, however refuting any provocation: “I know how to stand in front of law enforcement“. In a press release Wednesday morning, the association protested against this arrest, which it described as “muscular”, denouncing a “violent repression against the “Forgotten Dalo” families”.
“This violent arrest during a peaceful demonstration of women, men and children is a new attack against the homeless and their supporters”, stormed the association. The arrest of Jean-Baptiste Eyraud provoked numerous reactions, in particular on Twitter, from Ian Brossat, the deputy (PCF) for housing at the town hall of Paris, to Emmanuelle Cosse, the president of the Social Union for the housing and former housing minister, who felt that “nothing justifies such violence [contre un militant qui], for thirty years, without violence, defends the cause of the poorly housed”.
“The law is violated, like the rights of tenants”
“I’m fine“, assured Jean-Baptiste Eyraud, acknowledging however to have had”fearwhen a policeman immobilized him with his knee, while he was lying on his stomach: “I was struggling to breathe and I thought of all those who lost their lives because of this violence.He announced his intention to file a complaint for obstructing the right to demonstrate. “Obviously the prefecture is angry with us“, quipped the spokesperson, recalling that Didier Lallement, the Paris police chief, had taken legal action twice to thwart the actions of the collective, each time without success.
The State is also at fault because it does not apply the Dalo law as it is supposed to do, by housing the recognized priority household within six months, said the activist. In Ile-de-France alone, 65,000 households recognized as such are still waiting to be rehoused, and sometimes sinceyears» ; they are 210,000 at the national level. “The law is violated, such as tenant rights, rent control, rent freeze on re-rental, standards of decency, Airbnb […] With the housing crisis, slum landlords are getting richer, private landlords in general, all those who come out of business schools and tell themselves that they will be annuitants in 15 years having bought two, three or four dwellings“And if possible small because it is more profitable, denounced Jean-Baptiste Eyraud. “It is the paradise of fraud, rental reports: there is no control, there is no sanction!In the audience, alongside union and association leaders were LFI elected officials, such as MP Éric Coquerel and Paris councilor Danielle Simonnet, as well as Ian Brossat.
“Why we don’t talk about expensive housing”
The police charge will have had at least one merit. A delegation will be received Thursday morning by the Minister of Housing, Emmanuelle Wargon, announced the latter on Twitter. Above all, while the “forgotten Dalo” have been camping for a month and a half in general indifference and housing has failed to break through the glass ceiling of the countryside, it was now or never to give of the voice. And Eyraud did not hesitate to do so, taking on the accents of a tribune to denounce the inflation of rents, a consequence of this “pension support planwhat public housing policy is in his eyes today. “QWhen we talk about purchasing power, why we talk about rents, why we don’t talk about expensive housing, why we don’t talk about the first job, which is the highest for the working classes, and which forces low-income households to eat at the food bank to be able to pay their rent and not end up on the street, because the street kills!“Thundered the activist to applause.
Not discouraged by his night at the police station, the DAL spokesman made an appointment on Monday under the windows of the “Madame’s HQ and Monsieur’s HQ“, aiming without naming them the two”finalistsof the presidential competition, Marine Le Pen and Emmanuel Macron. No instructions to vote in favor of the second, guilty of having planed the APL at the start of his mandate, but a surprise as to his “strategy: it seems that he lacks reserves of voice, and he hits us on the face!