As part of the 1ʳᵉ edition of the night of solidarity, municipal agents, elected officials, volunteers and students criss-crossed the four corners of the city of Tours to visit the homeless. Goal : identify all homeless people in one evening using a questionnaire to fill in with them to know their situation, their needs and since when they no longer have accommodation, while offering them coffee, soup and blankets.
No place in emergency accommodation
Among the homeless people interviewed, 42-year-old Lucho was released from prison four months ago. He fights every day to find a job and accommodation in Tours without any results. “Every day I call 115 from 3 p.m. because in Tours it opens at 3 p.m., they tell me each time to call back at 8 p.m., and when I call back they don’t follow up. It’s super frustrating, I don’t believe it anymore“, concedes the 42-year-old man. A former soldier in the army, he says he lost everything very quickly.
– John Rinaud
We are and we will remain invisible
Every evening, he now got into the habit of sleeping near the Super U at the station with several comrades. father of three children, he still has hope of getting out of it. ” This evening, I hardly feel my hands anymore because of the cold, but my children give me the strength to believe in it. We can be high and very quickly land very low, but now that we are at our lowest, we try to go up“. The census questionnaire, he therefore fills out with optimism even if he remains convinced that it will not immediately solve his situation. ” The approach is good, the questions are good, but I would be surprised if they found me accommodation in the blink of an eye. We are and we will remain invisible“.
I am psychologically tired
Romain has been homeless for eight years in Tours. Sleeping bag under his arm, he only dreams of one thing: integrating a Tiny House, Paul Bert district. ” I would like to have a small piece of land that the municipality can offer us, like a Tiny House. I’m mentally and physically tired, it’s getting very complicated, so it would allow me to settle down and be able to look for work.“.
– John Rinaud
An action positively received by the homeless
On the volunteer side, several groups have been formed to cover the 74 sectors of the city between 6 p.m. and midnight. Mathias, in charge of covering the rue Nationale sector, participated in his very first marauding and he was very surprised by the reaction of the homeless. ” IThey’ve been relatively super positive, despite the distress that’s really there. They received us with a smile, a little joke, while the questionnaires were, in my opinion, a bit long and tedious. But they took the time to listen to us and played the game. I now hope that the town hall will release a budget large enough to best help these people in great need.”.
The census made by the 230 volunteers during this evening is now in the hands of the town hall, which gives one month to find the right solutions in order to best meet the needs of the homeless.