A “homeless” man died on 31 December in the streets of Metz. The Moselle anti-poverty collective shouts out its anger.
An investigation is under way into the causes of this death, we think of course of the cold, which was biting that night. But the cold doesn’t kill; what kills is being left outside, in the cold, humidity and misery.
Once again, we denounce public policies and, in particular, the aberrant criteria for triggering the “extreme cold” plan: temperatures must be negative during the day for people to judge that nights outside will be unbearable for the human organism! The Prefect has the decision-making power: he must now trigger this plan, and open, as has already been done in previous winters, reception areas, night and day.
The 115 often saturated
We are told that some homeless people would no longer call 115 and refuse to be housed. However, it is still necessary to reach 115, whose lines are generally saturated. Generally, the answer is: “call back from 8 p.m. and then after 10 p.m.”. Indeed, some people on the street no longer have the courage to spend hours on the phone, and prefer to go into a corner of a porch. More serious: this corner of the porch seems more welcoming to them than some shelters, where promiscuity, violence and filth reign. We experienced this recently: a gymnasium and dusty floor mats easily attracted people who are notorious for turning away from shelters.
The government must be able to do much better than what fifteen or so activists and volunteers can do by occupying a gym. There are empty barracks, thousands of vacant homes, in the city of Metz: we demand a requisition, to avoid new deaths!
Catherine Stotzky, Éric Graff, Collectif Mosellan de Lutte contre la Misère (Moselle Collective for the Fight against Poverty)