“The challenge is to adjust our policies to the situations we will encounter”, explained Thursday January 20 on franceinfo Jean-Pierre Ferri, deputy mayor of Arras, in charge of social cohesion and housing, on the occasion of the Night of Solidarity which takes place this Thursday evening in several cities of France to identify the number of homeless people. Their number was estimated at nearly 300,000 in 2020 in France, twice as many as ten years ago according to the Abbé Pierre Foundation. “The challenge is to reach out to those who are invisible”, continues Jean-Pierre Ferri.
franceinfo: This is the first time that Arras has taken part in this operation. How is it going to happen ?
Jean-Pierre Ferri: There are pairs made up of street mediators, actors from an association that fights against homelessness, who will go to five sectors that we have predefined around Arras station, in particular, to meet of these homeless people. We are also going to participate in a census together with INSEE because for these audiences we need visibility that we don’t always have.
What is at stake?
It’s really about administering a small questionnaire in a benevolent and empathetic way to identify some useful information about their current situation, their state of health, the Covid crisis. Are they followed? Were they able to receive the doses of the vaccine? The challenge is really to approach them, without judgement, with a spirit of listening, empathy and kindness.
Do you know how many homeless there are in your city?
I have a number of items. We have a historic commitment to these issues related to social wandering, so we have followed about fifteen people whom we accompany, but the challenge this evening is to reach out to those, sorry for the expression, who are invisible. . Those who refuse any accompaniment, entry into any devices whatsoever. The challenge is to adjust our policies to the situations we will encounter.
What will happen next?
From this Thursday evening and Friday morning we will proceed to the counting of the questionnaires and we will take stock of all the realities that we will have discovered this evening, this night and behind our day and night receptions, our accompaniments, our marauding. We will adapt our policies to act in a fairer and more efficient manner.