That night, Jalal and Amira, a homeless Tunisian couple, sleep in a hotel in Lyon and welcome us into their kitchen. This night of respite is financed by a collective of parents, thanks to solidarity snacks. “It’s thanks to them. Normally, we’re on the street, we sleep in a parking lot at night, we don’t have a blanket like that“, says Amira, the mother. Living conditions difficult to bear for the children, who are still in school: “they cough, they have a runny nose, we are cold”continues Amira. “The little one is really not well morally, adds the dad, Jalal, she was already telling me ‘I don’t want my friends to know that I live on the street’.”
>> “My name is Merlida, I live in a tent”: thousands of children will go back to school while sleeping on the street
As in this family, children without a housing solution have been increasing in number in Lyon since the start of the school year, due to a lack of accommodation. “We have already called 115 several times for two months, every evening, we call 115“, assures Amira. No emergency accommodation for this Tunisian family who fled the crisis in their country.
A situation shared by Anissa, an Albanian, and her family, who encounter the same difficulties. “We’ve been sleeping outside since May, in a tent near Part-Dieu station“, she explains.
“My daughter doesn’t have a space to do her homework or even a table just to draw on. She can’t take a shower like everyone else.”
These children forced to live outside, whose parents often ask for asylum, are more and more numerous according to the collective of associations Never without a roof. He has identified so far “194 children in the Lyon conurbation, 26 children under three, including a two-month-old baby“, explains Raphaël Vulliez who leads this network. “At the national level, there are no official statistics. The figure we had, but which is not exhaustive, is that at the end of August, there were 1,658 children whose applications for 115 were not filled and that this figure had increased“, he specifies.
A month later, that number has increased”by 30%“according to estimates, bringing the number of street children to more than 2,000.”There, there have been 7,000 cuts in emergency accommodation places this year and 7,000 are planned for next year in the finance bill. It’s a completely irresponsible decision.“, denounces Raphaël Vulliez.
never homeless has joined forces with UNICEF, the FCPE, the Abbé Pierre Foundation and several parliamentarians to challenge decision-makers and try to improve the situation before the coming winter. A rally is scheduled for Monday, October 17 in front of the National Assembly.
More and more children are sleeping on the streets in Lyon – Le reportage de Mathilde Imberty
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