Eddy and Ali, two agents of the town hall of Paris in charge of the bathhouses of Oberkampf in the 11th arrondissement, noticed the arrival of a new category of users. People who are not on the streets but who suffer from the increase in energy prices. This public service is free for everyone, Eddy recalls: “There are people who have accommodation who come to the shower baths, of course. More and more. They tell us that they don’t really have the means because water is expensive. retirees too. There are also disabled people, who have very low salaries, who come here to take a shower, etc. “They can stay 40 minutes in the shower, 30 minutes”, Ali adds.
Among these regulars, there is Annie, a young retiree who lives in the neighborhood. She was a carer and therefore receives a very small pension: “I have 75 liters of balloon, but it goes quickly, it costs too much. [Les bains-douches] it saves money, I don’t have too much money. It’s not easy, so I take a shower here, it’s clean, that’s the main thing.”
Claire Levy-Vroelant, professor of urban sociology at the University of Paris 8, conducted a study on shower baths before the health crisis and this trend was already strong: “Almost half of the people we interviewed were housed in conditions that brought them to the shower baths. We even saw owners or people who lived in social housing, who frequented the shower baths.”
“When we are close to 10 euros, close to 15 euros, close to 20 euros, you are looking for all the solutions. And then there comes a time when you cannot arbitrate because all these expenses are unavoidable.”
Christophe Robert, Abbé Pierre Foundationat franceinfo
The Abbé Pierre Foundation also makes this observation. For Christophe Robert, secretary general of the association, we must help this public more: “We need a hard and stumbling cash response. I am thinking of the energy check, the amount of which we are calling for to be doubled, especially for the most modest households, so that people can get over it”.
In Lyon, the town hall estimates that 10 to 15% of bath-shower users have accommodation. In Nantes, demand was so strong that baths and showers reopened two years ago.