sleep merchants in the sights of the departments

It is in a residential area of ​​Garges-lès-Gonesse (Val-d’Oise) that several sleep merchants are rampant. On one of the pavilions, a detail caught the attention of the municipal services. “We spotted small holes here that were made to make ventilation in the accommodation since there are none and the accommodations are not up to standard. We spotted it that way and we triggered all the possibilities we had to force the owner to sell and that’s what we managed to do”testifies Benoît Jimenez, the mayor of the town.

A public land company supporting municipalities

This unsanitary pavilion, which is 80m2, has been divided into five apartments. “The idea is that it is not again a sleep merchant who acquires it, but on the contrary that we can have a normal realization in this suburban district”, adds Benoît Jimenez. For this, the city asked a public land company to buy and rehabilitate the premises. In total, fifteen municipalities in Île-de-France have decided to use this tool to fight against slum landlords.