Damage, garbage deposits: in Montpellier, the social housing brigade can now fine the perpetrators of certain offenses

Le procureur Fabrice Bélargent et le Michaël Delafosse (au centre) entourés du directeur du GSRI, Steve Lefebvre (à g.) et de Michel Calvo, président d’ACM Habitat. – F. A.

Le Groupe de sécurité résidentielle interbailleurs est en fonction depuis le mois d’octobre sur une trentaine de résidences sociales de Montpellier et de la métropole. Douze d’entre sont désormais assermentés pour dresser des procès-verbaux.

Damage to buildings, dumping rubbish, or even being caught urinating in the common areas of a building: as many offenses as the housing brigade can now verbalize when she notices them. Twelve of its agents have been trained and sworn in to be able to issue tickets in the face of these incivilities which harm the living environment of residents.

Training with police officers

This Thursday, March 21, the crew members concerned took an oath before the judicial court, as is customary for carrying out this type of mission. "They followed 15 hours of training with police officers to know how to detect an offense, translate a reality into a contravention, or even identify an identity", explained the public prosecutor of Montpellier, Fabrice Bélargent.

This knowledge is in addition to that acquired by all members of the Inter-landlord Residential Security Group (GSRI). This, the result of a partnership between the metropolis, the public prosecutor's office and social landlords, was set up last October in around thirty social residences in Montpellier, Castelnau-le-Lez, Juvignac and Jacou.

Fight step by step against degradation

Concretely, "the agents have five days to file their reports with the police station or the gendarmerie on which the municipality depends. These 4th and 5th class infractions thus enter the prosecution circuit", specified the public prosecutor alongside the mayor and president of the metropolis, Michaël Delafosse. Both see in this approach a step-by-step fight against the deterioration of social housing, conducive to the development of delinquency.

"Trafficking delights in a murky environment", observes the public prosecutor, who insists on the field of intervention of sworn GSRI agents. "For them it is not a question of investigating or dismantling drug trafficking. They are there to show off on this other side of the social housing situation. The police must focus on other things." Fabrice Bélargent highlighted the still relatively uncommon nature of this practice, which allows a residential peace brigade to fine certain offenses.

"Small crimes that ruin people's lives"

"The GSRI model was launched in Paris in the early 2000s, then deployed in Toulouse around ten years ago ;years", recalled for his part Michaël Delafosse. "We must be able to sanction the small offenses which ruin the lives of people." The mayor of Montpellier and president of the metropolis cites the example of residents who lose their mail because of damaged mailboxes. Or again, that of a resident who, during the riots last summer, "had slept in his car so as not to have it burned to him." "We must act where people are most vulnerable and need the full commitment of public authority."

GSRI: 40 agents by the end of 2024-beginning of 2025

The security group inter-landlord residential insurance (GSRI) account To date, 18 agents have been selected based on physical aptitude and legal knowledge tests. "They then follow a three-week initial training in law& quot;, recalledé this Thursday the general director of this unit, Steve Lefebvre. Patrols take place from 4 p.m. to 4 p.m. 2 a.m., according to a color code which identifies social residences according to their more or less sensitive nature, in terms of incivility. Members of the GSRI are equipped with clothing that identifies them, including a bulletproof vest that protects them against attacks. possible attacks. Since taking office, the group has notably suffered stone attacks. The workforce of the GSRI is gradually growing, as time goes by. measurement of recruitment. It should reach 40 agents by the end of 2024 or the beginning of 2025.