Mobilization pays off: Christian Estrosi opens the Massena High School dormitory and a youth hostel to the homeless. However, if we do not reach out to them, the homeless will not know about this, and it is necessary to organize patrols covering the entire city to inform and guide them.
Human nature is quite strange. No one could have imagined that we would be confined in this way. However, one could have easily bet that in a major crisis, of any kind, the homeless and vulnerable would once again be forgotten and left behind.
This is the case with the government system that did not anticipate the protection of the homeless. And while many municipalities have rectified this oversight by quickly opening gyms, clinics, or other public buildings, the City of Nice, surprisingly, thought of drones and curfews before considering the needy.
Let’s remind ourselves once again: the homeless have the same right to protection against Covid-19 as the rest of the population, and protecting them also reduces the risk of spread. Solidarity and fighting the virus go hand in hand.
Following citizen mobilization in Nice, Christian Estrosi announced the opening of the youth hostel on Sacha Guitry Street and the Massena High School dormitory to the homeless, and I welcome this advancement.
But we have only covered half the ground: it is now necessary to move beyond the desk-based logic and reach out to the homeless.
Indeed, the mayor of Nice stated to the press that he had offered additional places to the most vulnerable “who would come forward, which is not the case for now since the State offers them hotel rooms.” However, this ignores that the desk-based logic, where one waits for potential beneficiaries to come forward, is not suited for urgent social policies where it is essential to reach out to the most vulnerable.
Many homeless people are not aware of the resources available to them and have not yet met any social workers. Some are exiles who do not speak French and are unfamiliar with the city. Others are homeless who have had bad experiences in shelters and do not wish to return or simply believe that they are, as usual, full to capacity. But there are also those who live in squats, sleep in their car, their caravan, or in makeshift camps. All must be informed of the Covid-19 risks and offered care.
It is therefore essential to organize coordinated patrols covering the entire city, meeting the homeless, informing them, and guiding them, while protecting the social workers themselves as much as possible.
And it is only once as many homeless people as possible are directed towards care facilities that we will see if the hotel rooms of the 115, the available places of the CCAS, and the two new sites made available will suffice, which I strongly doubt.
