“Mayors use apartments as leverage to be re-elected!” : the right to housing ignites the debates in Sète Agglo

Le collectif de défense du droit au logement s’est exprimé en préambule. Midi Libre – VICTOR GUILLOTEAU

L’élu frontignanais Gérard Prato a quitté les débats, jeudi, en conseil d'Agglo. Des groupes de travail sur le sujet sont à l’étude.

The intervention, Thursday evening, of the collective of nine associations for the defense of the right to housing, should only take "only three minutes", as a preamble to the Agglomerate council which took place in Bouzigues. The discussions that followed ultimately took three quarters of an hour. Time to respond, to debate, to see Gérard Prato unpin and leave the room, and finally to find a way to act in solidarity in favor of this subject "priority" , as recognized by Michel Arrouy, Jocelyne Gizardin and Yves Michel.

"We have neither the means nor the will to compensate in the long term for the shortcomings of public authorities&quot ;

In its letter addressed to elected officials, the collective recalled its daily missions in the face of poverty, hunger and poor housing. "But we have neither the means nor the will to compensate in the long term for the shortcomings of public authorities who do not fulfill their missions of protecting fragile populations, particularly in matters of accommodation."

The departmental structures dedicated to emergency accommodation are indeed saturated, and last winter, the collective still did not understand why a municipal hall, however ready, had not been open to Sète. "We cannot ignore what the cities are doing, in particular Sète, wanted to respond Jocelyne Gizardin. We are in contact with the SUS (Solidarité Urgence Sétoise) which had opened places and told us that it was not useful to open this room. But we take the subject head on with the state, the SUS and the associations."

Associating associations with exchanges

If the emergency accommodation center has around a hundred relay apartments, Gérard Prato, elected in Frontignan, made a point of sharing the internal letters which emanate from the structure. "You say that the cities are doing what is necessary ? I know the working conditions of the SUS: fights, drug trafficking, deplorable behavior, the cockroaches circulating… I ask where the SUS budget goes! We have people asking for housing, but most mayors use it as leverage through apartment allocations to be re-elected! While people are looking for housing and won't have any…" Faced with this "hypocrisy", directly insulting Vice-President Loïc Linarès over his personal property, Gérard Prato preferred to leave the room…

The Sète Agglo council voted…

COMPETITION FUNDS Balaruc-les-Bains requested é aid of 1.2 M€ of the Agglopôle under a competition fund “exceptional aid Covid Thermalism” for the development of public spaces in the Hespérides sector, and the rehabilitation and extension of the wellness center “ O’balia”.

SPORTAs part of operating subsidies, Sète Agglo awards à the Boule d’Azur de Balaruc-les-Bains (112 000 €), the’Arago de Sète (708 000 & euro;), Sète Natation (291 000 €) and Frontignan Thau Handball (157 000 €), a total amount of 1, 2 M€.

This departure did not interrupt the debate, however. The elected officials, on the initiative of Michel Garcia, finally agreed to raise the subject in a conference of mayors. "We could have a joint discussion with the associations. Showing the solidarity of all mayors, we can think about it. Having a solidarity policy in our territory is something important." A proposal that the collective welcomed with "satisfaction&quot ; and "impatience", particularly in view of the next heatwaves…

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