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All residents of the Obélisque Tower in Epinay-sur-Seine will have to leave their accommodation on the evening of Wednesday, December 8. The building is considered dangerous, and uninhabitable. The families, resigned and angry, consider the rehousing proposals insufficient.
At the foot of the tower, on the morning of Wednesday, December 8, many trucks are gradually filling up. On 32 floors, more than a hundred homes must be empty before the evening, sometimes with decades of furniture and objects to move. Monia Pécout decides to abandon the apartment she has occupied for 31 years. “Like dogs, we were kicked out, she confides. We are uprooted. We no longer have benchmarks. Overnight they tell us to evacuate buildings by peril. “ The evacuation was decided in early November, after an expert pointed out the risk of the balconies collapsing.
For many residents, the situation is incomprehensible. “It’s fixable, anyway. I don’t know why they decided to destroy this building. I would never understand,” asks Eugene Kalonji. At 75, he comes to collect his last things, distraught. “It’s more that I sadness, really I cry,” he said. Some apartments have already been sealed for almost a month. The France Télévisions teams had met an inhabitant, Christian Grillet, on November 10, when he was being evacuated. He has since been relocated to a hotel room by the Salvation Army. The State offers him 87,000 euros, for an apartment bought 140,000 euros 15 years ago. He says he is “in full stress” and is “afraid” for his future. A total of 500 people had to be evacuated.