The 30m² apartment is located north of the 19th arrondissement of Paris, in a beautiful red brick building. Located on the first floor, it has two rooms. The living room, where Malika and her daughter sleep on a sofa bed. And another room the kitchen and bedroom where her two boys share a bunk bed. Everything is filled with mold.
The humidity is everywhere and the heating goes out in the middle of the night
It was in the bathroom that Malika tried to hide the walls blackened by fungus. “The window no longer closes, everything is swollen” explains this 42-year-old woman. “It is very cold and at the same time the heating does not work all the time”.
– Fany Boucaud
The humidity caused serious health problems for the family
In the living room as in the other room, behind the makeshift wallpaper, everything is black. A situation that made you sick her 5 year old granddaughter, Lina, asthmatic. She had to be hospitalized 15 days. “I thought my daughter was going to die. She caught a virus and it was because of the humidity according to the doctors” says the mother, still very worried.
– Fany Boucaud
“I’m ashamed to live here, so I don’t invite friends” Kamel, the eldest son
Kamel, 19, computer science student, would like have your own room and some privacy. The young man sleeps on a bunk bed with his brother. And the bedroom floor is falling apart. “I admit I’m ashamed to bring friends here. The humidity is suffocating us and it’s far too small anyway.”
– Fany Boucaud
Helped by the DAL, the Right to Housing, Malika will again start a procedure in March to try to move. She started the process in 2017, but has never had a relocation offer since, according to her.
The mother is one of the 4.1 million people affected by poor housing, according to the latest annual report on the state of poor housing in France, from the Abbé Pierre Foundation published this Tuesday, February 1.