Until the last moment, they held their breath. “We had a delay of eight months”exclaims Soumahoro Alimata, 26, very moved, who lives in a squat in lower Montreuil. (Seine-Saint-Denis). The place is now occupied by a hundred women, including pregnant women, and their children. Upon arriving in France, these women, mostly undocumented, “everyone knew the streetreports Soumahoro Alimata. We met under the tents of the Paris City Hall of the Utopia 56 association and then we came to Montreuil”.
With the end of the winter break on March 31, they feared finding themselves on the street. On April 20, the judge ruled in their favour: they can stay until December. If, in Montreuil, these women have obtained a little “respite”, several squats have been evacuated, such as the Malaqueen – a squat and self-managed social center established in Malakoff (Hauts-de-Seine) since 2021. “Squats are not subject to the truce, but there is normally a form of tolerance during the winter”explains Manuel Domergue, director of studies at the Abbé Pierre Foundation, who recalls that the context of the bill brought by the Renaissance deputies Guillaume Kasbarian (Eure-et-Loir) and Aurore Bergé (Yvelines) against the illegal occupation of housing contributes to the deterioration of the situation.
This text, tabled by the deputies of the majority and adopted at second reading by the National Assembly on April 4, is widely decried, whether by the Defender of Rights, by the National Consultative Commission on Human Rights or even by UN special rapporteurs. It plans to punish the squatting of someone else’s home with three years’ imprisonment and a fine of 45,000 euros, i.e. penalties three times heavier than currently. Squatting empty or disused buildings, including those intended for commercial, agricultural or professional use, would expose you to two years in prison and a fine of 30,000 euros, although this does not currently constitute an offence.
“Real lack of the state”
“This bill criminalizes squatting and presents squatters as criminals, worries Manuel Domergue. Evictions from squats are less publicized and less supervised than rental evictions, but they do exist and are sometimes violent, with people being thrown onto the streets without any offer of accommodation, or only very temporarily. » The Observatory of evictions from informal living spaces (squats, slums, tents) recorded, between 2021 and 2022, 2,078 evictions (including 151 squats), compared to 1,330 between 2020 and 2021. “A slight increase for squats”, according to Célia Mougel who coordinates the observatory. She insists on “the difficulty of having figures on squats since a large number of expulsions pass under the radar”.
You have 59.95% of this article left to read. The following is for subscribers only.