Demonstration by local residents, banners on the balconies, meeting at the town hall. The reception center project for homeless people carried out by the Salvation Army is causing a stir in Saint-Fargeau, in the 20th arrondissement of Paris. The new “Insertion Solidarity Space” (ESI) is due to open in September 2022. The idea is to rehabilitate the premises of a former CPAM center with showers, toilets and mailboxes made available to the homeless during the day. It is also to provide them with a social follow-up. Except that some locals strongly oppose it.
The fear of drug addicts
On the facades of the buildings on rue Saint-Fargeau, messages float: “Neighborhood in danger“, “No to the sacking of St Fargeau“. Daniel lives just opposite the future day center and according to him, local residents were never consulted. “We discover at short notice the project in question. Our fear is the degradation of the quality of life in the neighborhood, crime of all kinds and in particular violence and drugs.“
Our fear is the degradation of the quality of life in the neighborhood, crime of all kinds and in particular violence and drugs.
Yet the town hall repeats: no amalgam between Saint-Fargeau and the aborted shooting room project 500 meters from here! But opponents fear the center is draining a population of drug addicts. “We will be present!“, assures the socialist mayor of the 20th, Eric Pliez. “We are going to follow this project and obviously with all the means at our disposal – the police, the prevention teams – we will be able if, at some point, there is a problem.“
No such structure in the 20th
Integration Solidarity Spaces like this one, there are none in the 20th apart from a center reserved for vulnerable women. This is the emergency, for the spokesman of the Salvation Army, Samuel Coppens. “Today, what is certain is that there are needs. We are one of the 16 ESIs that exist in Paris. They must be diffuse.“
– City of Paris
The co-owners of the building are meeting this Thursday, January 27 in an extraordinary general meeting to decide whether or not to lodge an appeal against the project. But there is also residents of Saint-Fargeau who support the installation of the center of reception. They have also launched an online petition and say to themselves “more than ever in solidarity with the most deprived“. She collected almost 600 signatures in two weeks.