“Living in a gymnasium seems average to me”: activists from Robin.es des Toits burst into Montpellier town hall

Around fifteen activists burst into the town hall hall to denounce the situation of the homeless. Free Midi – GIACOMO ITALIANO

While the winter break has just ended, around fifteen demonstrators from the Robin.es des Toits collective gathered this Tuesday, April 2, in the hall of the town hall , to alert the mayor of Montpellier and the prefect of Hérault to the precarious situation of thousands of homeless people.

Around fifteen activists gathered in the hall of the town hall this Tuesday, April 2, with survival blankets on their backs, to ask the municipality to take action. nbsp;"immediate shelter" of precarious people in Montpellier.

While 1,000 to 1,500 people are on the streets in Montpellier according to Robin.es des Toits, the collective is launching a cry of alarm . Its members deplore a "lack of political will" and call for a "right to dignity".

A symbolic mobilization without violence

The aim of this peaceful demonstration is to "raise the subject" explains Cécile Casagrande , one of the members of the collective. Solène, another activist, was responsible for the slogans: "Apartments, for accommodation, not for speculation". A protester in a situation of poor housing castigates : "Living in a gymnasium doesn't appeal to me.

A few minutes after the arrival of the activists, municipal police officers were on site to supervise the mobilization. Deputy to the cabinet director in charge of security, François Villette came into contact with the demonstrators. He offered to receive them, while asking them to leave the town hall hall.

They complied smoothly in front of the municipal police before distributing leaflets and dispersing."Symbolically , they kicked us out, regret Anaïs, a student, and Florian, looking for work. Both are members of the NPA (New Anticapitalist Party), which contributed to the founding of the collective.

"I sleep in a church"

Arriving in Montpellier four years ago, Ismaela has been in poor housing for a year. Unemployed, he gives his time to Secours Catholique and the Red Cross in particular. "I'm sleeping in a church at the moment" : the 26-year-old is staying in a converted room,< em> "next to the prayer space". The 115 directed it there.

Cécile Casagrande exposes: "If the mayor himself were on the street, he would agree to open the gymnasiums" . The organization had already occupied a former youth hostel on rue des Ecoles-Laïques in March, demanding the provision of this vacant building belonging to the city of Montpellier for the homeless.

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