VIDEO. The inhabitants of a social housing at risk demand their rehousing

Wide wooden beams to support the stairwell, brackets for the steps and plates screwed into the walls and ceilings to hide the holes.

Linda Meyers has occupied one of the apartments in this social housing for 19 years and does not hide her fear of seeing the building collapse one day. “We are afraid that the staircase will give way. If the staircase falls, part of the walls and the apartments will come with it”worries the septuagenarian.

She insists on showing us around the basements which, according to her, testify to the dilapidated state of the building. Behind the cellar door the steps of the stairs are moldy and the plaster has fallen off in many places.

From the moment they laid the beams, I noticed, going down and going up the stairs, that it was moving.

a resident of the building

at the eye of 8 p.m.

Since the installation of the wooden beams by the social landlord last May, another resident, who she wishes to remain anonymous, says she sometimes feels the building shake.

Already in 2008, props had been placed at the windows to support the walls which, despite everything, would continue to move according to this resident: “we noticed that the windows did not close. So I contacted the lessor and a technician told me that there is a problem with the wall, apparently the wall is shifting” she explains.

Problems that the inhabitants say they have been reporting for fifteen years to their social landlord.

Adoma, owner of the premises until 2020, claims to have taken into account the requests of the inhabitants: “this building was regularly maintained before the sale. Between 2016 and 2020, we carried out major work for an amount of more than 400,000 euros”.

Today, the fifteen or so occupants are asking to be rehoused urgently. They rely in particular on an expertise carried out last December by an architect from the Paris prefecture who concluded that “the poor general condition of the building constitutes a risk for the inhabitants”.

Risk but not imminent peril

For its part, the property management of the city of Paris (RIVP), the current social landlord, relativizes the risk pointed out by the architect of the prefecture. The inhabitants will be well relocated but there is no urgency according to its manager:

“This external opinion does not recommend any immediate additional measure to secure the building. AT very short term, the precautionary measures which consisted in particular in laying these props are sufficient to ensure that there is no danger” temporize Christine Laconde, Director General of the RIVP.

More and more tenants summon their social landlord because he does not answer them. It takes a year, a year and a half for the work to be done to be taken into account.

Catherine Bidois, president of the CLCV

at the eye of 8 p.m.

An answer that does not satisfy the CLCV tenant association. Its president denounces the slowness of social landlords. And according to her, the fate of this Parisian building would not be an isolated case.

The RIVP also indicates that the building should not be destroyed but that it will be completely renovated without specifying the date or the duration of the work.

Among our sources (non-exhaustive list):

The report of the security architect of the Prefecture

The construction and housing code