Testimonies “I felt like an incapable mother”: in Lyon, the difficult daily life of families on the streets, while 2,000 children sleep outside in France

According to the “children on the streets” barometer, published by UNICEF and the Federation of Solidarity Actors, more than 2,000 children are sleeping outside, just a few days before the start of the school year.

As school resumes, more than 2,043 children are sleeping outside. This is shown by the “children on the street” barometer, published Thursday, August 29 by UNICEF and the Federation of Solidarity Actors (FAS). Among the most affected regions is Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes. Families from Lyon told franceinfo about their daily lives when they were living on the streets.

They are now hosted by the Solidarity between women on the street collective, but before that, Miloud, Raouia and their two children slept outside. Miloud still remembers the sleepless nights and the man who tried to get into their tent. “He opened the tent, he wanted to sleep with us, at 1 or 2 in the morning. Fortunately, I pushed him and closed the tent. I talked to him a little and he calmed down.”

In the same building, on the floor above, we meet Deborah. Before coming here, she spent several months in a tent, alone with her two children. For her, the hardest part was answering her 5-year-old daughter’s questions. “Every time, she would tell me, ‘my friends have a house, we don’t have a house, we’re outside.’ That was the hardest part. I felt really bad, I felt like an incapable mother. It really hurt my heart.”

So, he had to keep his head up for his daughters, “keep hope for them, show that I am strong, even if I feel weak.” Today, she has a roof over her head, but the building in which these families live is illegally occupied by the collective. She therefore risks finding herself once again on the street, with her children.

In Lyon, some mothers found themselves in difficulty this summer. The Lyon metropolitan area shelters pregnant women and single mothers with children under three. But it also ensures that it welcomes families who do not fall under its jurisdiction. In mid-July, the Metropolis therefore temporarily stopped new care.

“We take on new people almost every month in the Lyon metropolitan area, including people from outside the department, without any help and without anything happening, explains the president of the Metropolis, Bruno Bernard. We tried everything : discussions with the State, we had commitments from the minister, nothing happened. So, we say that everyone must intervene.”

“We absolutely must have a national policy worthy of the name and each community, and I am thinking of neighboring departments, must play its part.”

Bruno Bernard, President of the Lyon metropolitan area

to franceinfo

In the meantime, the prefecture assures that the number of families requesting state aid has increased. And that it has therefore had to tighten its support criteria.