In Lyon, women demonstrate with their children to demand a roof over their heads

“A roof is a right.” This is one of the slogans chanted on Wednesday, August 14, during a demonstration in Lyon aimed at defending nearly 200 women and children who are threatened, once again, with ending up on the streets. Currently in a squat, these people were evicted for the first time last May, from two gymnasiums, by decision of Grégory Doucet, the mayor of Lyon. In the procession, there were about fifty women with children who hope to be able to quickly occupy a safe and lasting shelter. The City is considering a costly solution that requires the agreement of the prefecture. A delegation was therefore received at the prefecture.

“We are really afraid to go back outside with the children. Soon, school will start and we can’t imagine the children sleeping outside. There are also sick people, pregnant women.”explains Nassi, a mother at the protest.

“We are asking for a roof over our heads, for our dignity. That is what we are looking for.”

Carine, a protester

to franceinfo

The city plans to rent and upgrade an SNCF building to accommodate 60 people, but the prefecture has not yet given its approval. For Juliette Murtin, from the Solidarity between women on the street collective, time is running out. “Every night lost is extremely serious for the women and children who are outside. We have experienced very harsh heatwaves in Lyon. The streets kill in winter as well as in summer,” she warns.

“We see mothers arriving in the group with two-week-old babies who are on the streets and who ask us for solutions that we cannot offer them. We are extremely helpless. The situation in Lyon is catastrophic. There is a real explosion of homelessness. It is really urgent that the State reacts,” Juliettte Murtin continues. In ten years, the prefecture has doubled emergency accommodation, but demand has increased fivefold.